
RICE 



ttttMMMWWIMtW IMMMM W HM W IM WI W WMM MWM 



W<»>«tWHWIWIHMWMWM» M IW M tmit «Mltt<»M I<ttat»i1|miWBI I IIIlimlXI MII III M I IHUIIU Iil 



WHMlHrMII|tHMIIIM>HIIII»ll 







Book JB.5k._ 

Copyright N° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




J. G. KOBINSON. IVI. D. 



THE 

ROBINSON METHOD 

OF 

BREEDING SQUABS 

A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE NEW METHODS AND SECRETS OF THE MOST 
SUCCESSFUL HANDLER OF PIGEONS IN AMERICA. 




DIRECTIONS FOR HOUSING, NESTING, MATING, FEEDING. KILLING 
COOLING, MARKETING, SHIPPING, JiUVING, ETC. 

BY ELMER f^ICE. 

ILLUSTRATED WITH PLATES FRO.M NEW PHOTOGRAPHS SPECIALLV 
TAKEN FOR THIS WORK. 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED. 

WITH SUPPLEMENT. ,.,„ , 



BOSTON, MASS.: 

PLYMOUTH RUCK SQUAB CO. 

1902. 



THE LIBRARY SF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Oopin Receivm 

MAR i?'1902 

CoPVHiaMT ENTHV 

CLASS CU XXo No. 

COP 7 e. 



COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY ELMER RICE. 

COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY ELMER RICE. 

ALL, RIGHTS RESERVED. 



PREFACE. 
This Manual is written to give in brief and plain terms 
the rules by which Dr. J. G. Robinson, of Pembroke, Mass., 
has won his famous success in breeding squabs for market. 
I think everyone interested in profitable breeding stock will 
appreciate an account of the ways and means by which this 
gentleman and his wife have made such marked progress in 
the handling of pigeons. Although somewhat skeptical at 
first, I was shortly forced to believe that in this isolated ham- 
let of Plymouth county (where certainly there are no dis- 
tractions to annoy the patient student), they had quietly 
worked out problems which had been perplexing squab 
breeders for years, and were producing with mathematical 
certainty and regularity a table product so excellent as to 
make their squabs noted all over Boston where good diners 
gathered. By talking with the Boston marketmen who 
handled his product, I had a confirmation of the astonishing 
profit-showing of his books and I prevailed upon the Doctor 
to let the public know of this comparatively new industry, 
and its wonderful possibilities when intelligently pursued, 
and he has co-operated with me in this publication of the 
facts. To make the work careful and thorough, I investi- 



gated his plant for four months, in my leisure time, watching 
every detail, taking notes, and going over in conversation 
with the Doctor and his Avife the experiments which had led 
up to his deductions and settled plans. I made a rough draft 
from my data, cut out superfluous words and boiled every- 
thing down, and the following pages are the result. I take 
no credit for ideas of my own, but merely have made obser- 
vations of another's work, checked them for accuracy, and 
wTitten down the result. My intention has been to make 
a simple guide which faithfully followed by even a child with 
some gumption will result in a duplication of Dr. Robinson's 
success anywhere. He has revised the proofs and aided in 
the preparation of the illustrations. We hope this little hand- 
book will stimulate those into whose hands it goes to make 
a profitable living for themselves and aid in the development 
of this remarkable home industry. We welcome new facts 
and new experiences from any source and will take pleasure 
in incorporating them in future issues of this Manual. 

ELMER RICE. 
Boston, December, 1901. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

NO DRUDGERY 9 

SQUAB HOUSE AND FITTINGS 13 

FLYING-PEN AND FITTINGS 23 

HOW TO REMODEL A POULTRY HOUSE 31 

HOW TO USE A GARRET OR BARN LOFT 32 

HOW TO FEED 33 

BREEDING HABITS 40 

HOW TO MATE 44 

FEW AILMENTS 49 

HOW TO KILL AND COOL THE SQUABS 51 

HOW TO SHIP , 54 

BOOKKEEPING 61 

TRAINED FLYERS 62 

CHEAP BREEDERS ARE EXPENSIVE 66 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 
Title. Page. 

PORTRAIT OF DR. ROBINSOISr FRONTISPIECE. 

HOW PIGEONS MULTIPLE 12 

SQUAB HOUSE AND FLYING-PEN 14 

PLANS OF ROBINSON UNIT 16 

SQUAB HOUSE AND FLYING-PEN IN A BACKYARD 18 

INTERIOR OF SQUAB HOUSE 20 

NEST-BOXES WITH NAPPIES 22 

BACK VIEW OF NEST-BOXE.S 24 

FLYING-PEN VIEWED FROM THE SOUTH SIDE 26 

THE PATH-PAN 27 

FILLING THE SELF-FEEDER WITH GRAIN 28 

OLD POULTRY HOUSE FIXED FOR PIGEONS 30 

HOW TO KEEP PIGEONS IN A GARRET 32 

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SELF-FEEDER M 

A PRETTY SQUAB BREEDING STRUCTURE 36 

INSIDE OF SQUAB HOUSE 38 

PIGEONS IN THE SUN 40 

A PAIR OF EGGS 42 

SQUABS JUST HATCHED 42 

SQUABS ONE WEEK OLD -....42 

SQUABS TWO WEEKS OLD 42 

SQUABS THREE WEEKS OLD 43 

SQUABS FOUR WEEKS OLD 43 

PIGEONS ON THE ROOF OF SQUAB HOUSE 46 

HOW TO HANDLE A PIGEON 48 

HOW NOT TO KILL A SQUAB 52 

THREE DRESSED SQUABS ON A PLATTER 53 

HOW TO COOL THE KILLED SQUABS 56 

HAVING HIS PICTURE TAKEN 60 

VIEW OF RANCH AND FLYING-PENS 64 



NO DRUDGERY. 

In raising live stock of any kind, arrange matters so the 
animals will look after themselves as much as possible. We 
all know that automatic machinery has cheapened many arti- 
cles formerly dear, and the perfect breeding outfit is auto- 
matic, needing only a supply of feed and water. Aim to cut 
down the factor of personal drudger3% so as to leave your 
lime clear to observe and plan, and execute intelligently. 
Beginners who load themselves down with a daily round of 
exacting duties soon lose heart, their patience gives out and 
they become disgusted. \\"e have known l:)reeders of rabbits 
to fail simply [because they raised them in hutches. Each 
hutch had a door and tv/o dishes, one for feed, the other for 
water. Every day, the door of the hutch had to be opened, 
the hutch cleaned, the dishes refilled (and often cleaned), and 
the door closed. It took 15 or 20 motions to do this for 
each hutch. Multiply this by 20 to 30 (the number of the 
hutches), and the burden grew unbearable. It was not sur- 
prising that in three or four months the breeder's patience 
was worn out. The factor of personal drudgery had become 
greater than the rabbits. The thoughtful breeder would 
have turned his rabbits into two or three enclosures on the 



ground and let them shift for themselves. Then one set of 
motions in feeding would have answered for all, and there 
would have been no dirt to clean up. Infinite patience as 
well as skill is required to make a success of animals given 
individual attention. The aim of every breeder should be 
to make one minute of his time ser\/e the greatest possible 
number of animals. When you think and reason for your- 
self, you understand how much more practical it is to give 
sixty animals one minute of your time than one animal one 
minute. Time is money and if you are too particular, and 
too fussy, and thoughtless about these details, it is a clear 
case of the chances being sixty to one against you. 

At the start, the problem of breeding squabs for market 
is in your favor, because one hundred pairs of breeding 
pigeons may be handled as easily and as rapidly as one pair. 
Try to keep this numerical advantage in your favor all the 
time. Discard every plan that cuts down the efficiency of 
your own labor, and adopt every device that will give you 
control in the same time over a greater number of pigeons. 

It takes brains and skilled labor to run a poultry plant 
successfully. Ever}^ poultryman knows that he cannot en- 
trust the regulation of temperatures of incubators and brood- 
ers to an ignorant hired man, but even a boy or girl, or un- 
der-the-average farm hand, knows enough to fill up the bath- 
pans and feeding-troughs for squab-breeders, leaving the 
time of the owner free for correspondence and the more 
skillful work of killing and shi]:)ping the squabs. 

We found no written or printed advice about squab-breed- 

lO 



ing that was of real use. On the contrary, it was a hind- 
rance. The booklets, for instance, gave a warning against 
rats and dampness, bnt no clear, practical remedy. They 
advised a form of nest-box which experience proved imprac- 
tical on account of the time necessary to keep it clean. They 
advised a nest which turned out to be wrong. They recom- 
mended feeding at stated intervals, which resulted in squabs 
squeaking continually for nourishment. They said nothing 
about cooling the killed squabs. Unless the cooling is done 
properly, the squabs cannot be marketed. And so in almost 
every particular the advice proved to be either misleading, 
or deficient. It was discouraging, but an incentive to 
thought and experiment. Unless the beginner with squabs 
wishes to pass through the evolution of devices and methods 
which we passed through, he will avoid every suggestion 
which has not been demonstrated to be practical. 

The primary object is to breed squabs for market as 
cheaply, as easily and as fast as possible, without the expen- 
diture of a dollar for fanciful or impractical appurtenances. 
The amount of one's capital will settle the question of the 
number of pairs with which to start, whether ten, fiftv. one 
hundred or five hundred pairs. When you have fixed upon 
the amount of money you wish to expend for breeders, lay 
out your plans for the plant. 

The pigeons need shelter for themselves and their young — 
for this purpose a weatherproof wooden structure is de- 
manded. This sheher, which we will call the squab house, 
needs to be supplemented by a flying-pen in which the birds 

11 



XV^'T-ccJL-A. J- U^ •^ 




G ^ ■■ •■/-^oy--z-y/2..y- 






f ft ,. 

/j/x // v^6r^4'7'^5/y2^ 7^25/y-^^y. ay~ 600 ' 

J/ -, , r "'^ ''^^ ^'^^^ ^'^'^^ ^^"^' ■>'^'^/ ^''^^ '7'i.^ 
/7-ri " /i>s f-Ji'i + z^t 2Yi- ay -^ 2.W -f 2'/ i- £</ -/ 2 v ~ ^6o 

f O.^ 2^ >-<r-e^ "7$ ?<^_^»^ /t;«-^ -i-l-ft-C^ CL. 



HOW PIGEONS MULTIPLY. 

If one's means are limited. It is not necessary to buy a large flock. You may start with a 
dozen pairs, and by rearing your squabs to niaturily, at tlie end of a year you will have a large 
number of pairs. The sale of a comparatively few squabs during the year will pay for the feed 
for all and make the flock self-supporting. 

12 



will get the air and exercise which their nature demands. 

SQUAB HOUSE AND FITTINGS. 

The essential points in the construction of the squab 
house are these, that it should face the south, or east, 
or whence the least wind and most sun comes, that it be 
raised off the ground by short posts or stone pillars so rats 
cannot breed under it, that it have a double floor to keep 
out dampness, and that it be provided with windows for ven- 
tilation. Its shape may be varied to suit the fancy of the 
owner, but the simplest will be found to be the best. The 
simple pattern may be extended at any time, growing as the 
business grows. 

First, then, if you are starting to make a new building, 
select a location on fairly high, dry ground. It is not neces- 
sary to go to the side or top of a hill, in fact there would 
be too much wind in such a location. Pick out a place that 
is not a meadow but whose soil is loose, giving indication of 
good drainage. Set the foundation posts so that if you are 
caUed upon to extend the building at any time, it will run 
east and west on fairly level land for a distance of two hun- 
dred feet or more. 

Use cedar or locust for the posts, or you may build up 
stone at the four corners. Elevate the foundation timbers 
from one to two feet above tlie ground. Shingle all around 
the building, also the roof, but do not shingle the end which 
faces the direction in which you later may extend the squab 
house. Then you will not have to rip off the shingles when 

13 




SQUAB HOUSE AND FLYING-PEN. 

Perspective view of the Robinson Unit, witlx passageway, and Aviiul-break formation of roof 
Notice tlie pole for pigeons' roost in the center of the flying-pen. 



14 



yor. come to make the extension. The floor should b^. of 
two thicknesses of boards, with tarred paper between, to 
keep out dampness. 

One window in the north side is enough. There should 
be two in the south side. Through these two the birds fly 
from house to pen. They may slide up or down, or be hung 
on hinges, the idea being to provide means for closing them 
winter nights after the pigeons have taken refuge from the 
pen in the house. The arrangement easiest operated is to 
set them in grooves, and attach a rope for closing them from 
the back of the house. 

Sunlight is as good for pigeons as for all live stock. The 
windows of the squab house should be large and set as high 
as possible, especially on the south side, where the sun shines 
in all day. The glass should l^e kept clean so that the direct 
rays will fall in the interior of the squab house, dispelling 
moisture and aiding the process of disinfection which the 
oxygen in the air perfornis continually. 

The window or windows in the north side of the squab 
house should be kept closed most of the year, so as to run 
no chances on draughts, which are a prolific cause of trouble. 
In the hot days of summer there is no harm in opening the 
north window's. The breeder should use common sense in 
managing the windows so as to keep the air fresh without 
draughts. 

The nest-boxes are built of boxing and set in a vertical 
row at the back of the h.ouse, forming a wall betw^een wdiich 
and the north side of the hou.se is a three-foot passageway. 

15 



So " . 

\ 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 M 


-J 

1 


N 




\ 

--|N 


WB 




—1 

1, 

Vv 






F P 

f "'; BP 










1 1 


1 1 




-D 


SF 






PLAN OF UNIX. 

A, passageway; WWW, windows; 
DDD, doors; NNX, ut'Sts; WIS, iviud- 
break; KP, flying pen; I5F, bath-pan; 
Sf, self-feedev ; I'}', posis. The squab 
housfe is i2f t.xlSft. 



^ 



Q c i 
a: ^.^ 



1*4 - 



^ 

1-5 



10 



You can buy this boxing at a saw mill all cut, ten by eleven 
inches, the dimensions of the nest, and if you get it in this 
shape you can put the boxes together with as much ease as 
a child builds a doll's house. You will have no doubts as 
to the squareness and plumbness of the structure when you 
have it up. Take long lengths of boxing eleven inches wide 
for the shelving which should form the top and bottom of 
the nest-boxes, then set the lo in. x ii in. pieces the proper 
distance apart. The finished nest will be eleven inches from 
front to back, ten inches from top to bottom, and about ten 
inches from one partition to the other (or whatever distance 
the proper distribution of your nests in pairs permits). 

We have found five-eighths inch boxing to be the best 
suited. Build the nest-boxes up from floor to roof perfectly 
plain, just as the pigeon holes of a desk run. When you 
have got them up take tv/o-inch strips of the boxing and 
separate each pair of nests by tacking the stripping onto the 
edges where they project out into the house. The object 
of this stripping is to make it harder for a pair of birds in 
one nest-box to disturb the pair in the adjoining box. Be- 
tween the nest-boxes of the same pair there should be no 
stripping. 

The backs of the nest-boxes should be on hinges so that 
from the passagewa}^ you may examine every nest. Give 
each pair of nests a number and it is possible to keep an 
extremely accurate record of each pair of breeding birds. 
This record may be kept in a book, mmibering the pages 
to correspond to the number on a pair of nests. A better 

17 




SQUAB HOUSE ANT) FtYTNO-PEN IN A BACK YARD. 

Tliis ariangeinent is simple and iuexpensive. The door does not open to a passageway (as 
in the Robinson unit), but directly to the interior, which is lined with nests. The flying-pen has 
a raised board floor to prevent the gathering of pools of rain water. 



18 



way is to use a card index, giving one card to each pair of 
nests. A card three by five inches in size should be used, for 
the record is hable to extend over a term of years. If a 
pigeon dies, or a pair is otherwise broken up for any reason, 
the card may be removed at once. If you are using a book, 
you will have a lot of abandoned records in a year or two. 
The card index, weeded out as the birds change, remains 
alive ahvays, and is a perfect indication of the business you 
are doing, in ever)^ detail of expenditure and profit, as well 
as condition of birds, and the relation of feed to selling price 
of squabs may be figured out to a nicety. 

Roosts for the breeding pigeons should be tacked to the 
south and end walls of the squab house. These roosts should 
be made of inch luml^er 5 in. x 6 in. square. Set two pieces 
v shape and tack the roost (apex up) to the side of the house. 
One roost for each pair of birds will suffice. When one 
pigeon is not on the roost the other is on the roof or on the 
nest. The construction of the roost makes it impossible for 
one bird to soil another bird on the roost immediately under- 
neath. Do not provide one pole for a roost (as in a poultry 
house). The roosting habits of pigeons are not like those 
of hens. You must have separate perches. If you have only 
one perch, one bully cock pigeon is likely to swagger down 
the line sweeping ofT all the others and disputing ownership 
with them. 

There should be a wire door leading from the passageway 
to the interior of the scpiab house. You will go in and out 
of this door to clean the nests, pick up squabs from nests 

19 




INTERIOR OJF SQUAB HOUSK. 

Tliis Illustrates how the perches are made and fastened to tlie walls. Nail up as many as 
there is room and whitewash them. 



20 



built on the tloor, etc. 

In the middle of the house, on the floor, place an egg- 
crate or other light structure, tacking it lightly to the floor. 
This serves two purposes. On it place hay, grass, straw, etc., 
to be used by the birds in building their nests. It also serves 
as a wind-break. It modifies the force of the air blown by 
the wings of the pigeons as they fly from their nests out 
through the windows into the pen. Were it not there, the 
floor would be swept clean by the force of the wind from 
the wings. 

There should be a layer of sawdust one to two inches 
thick on the floor of the house. This prevents the nappies 
from being broken if by birds' quarreling they are pushed 
out of the nests. On a board floor they would break when 
they drop, but the sawdust lets them down easy. The saw- 
dust also makes an easy resting place for those birds that 
prefer to build their nests on the floor. There always will be 
two or three of these pairs of pigeons in every house. 

The nest-boxes should be perfectly plain, made of simple 
boxing in the manner described. Do not build up a piece 
of boxing at the front part of the nest to prevent the nappy 
from being pushed out. Early in our experience we built 
a few nests in this way but soon changed them over to the 
simpler form, on account of the difliculty of keeping them 
clean. The droppings baifl< up at the front of such a nest- 
box and it is almost impossilile to clean them thoroughly. 

Two sizes of nappies should be used. The small one is 
the size known as No. 6, seven inches in diameter across the 

21 




NEST BOXES WITH NAPPIES. 

The nest boxes are built of five eighths piae boxing sawed loiu.xllin. in size. They are per- 
fec lyplaiQ without cleats or projections, so that no dirt will collect. The pigeons build the 
nests in the nappies, using pieces of hay and grass. 



22 



top and two inches deep. The large nappy is known as No. 
7, and is nine inches in diameter and two and a half inches 
deep. The large one is given to the pigeons first to receive 
the eggs. When the sqna1)s are two weeks old, the large 
nappy is removed and the nest with its occupants transferred 
to the small one. The reason for the change is this : The 
nest v^'hich the breeding pigeons build in to receive the eggs 
should be large so that the cock and hen will have plenty 
of room to cover the youngsters and protect them from the 
cold. In winter time especially the}^ are very careful not to 
leave their tender young uncovered long enough to be 
chilled. The squabs deposit their dung in a circle inside the 
nest. At the end of two weelcs wh.en you change nappies, 
you get rid of the dirty nest and at the same time provide 
a nappy in which there is plenty of room for the squabs, and 
also you have a self-cleaning nest, for the yovmgsters deposit 
their dung over the edge of the nappy into the nest-box, and 
not into the nappy-, as they would do if you allowed the large 
nappy to remain. In the large nappy, also, some squabs, if 
left to develop, will become deformed, owing to the fact that 
their feet will push the nesting material off the slippery bot- 
tom, on which their legs will sprawl disjointed. 

FLYING«:»PEN AND FITTINGS. 

The flying pen is simply a wire yard. It is as wide as the 
squab house, and as high, and extends toward the south 
about twenty feet. Set posts at the southern extremity and 
stretch the wire to them, sides and top. The top of tiie 

23 




BACK VIEW OF NEST BOXES. 

The camera was located iu the passageway (see plan of Robinson unit.) The hinged back 
of the pair of nests No. 21 has been let down, to show how the ne-ts and squabs are reached 
from the passageway. An inquisitive three-weeks-old squab is seen perched on the edge of the 
opening. 



34 



posts should be on a level with the top of the squab house, 
so that a neat appearance will result. Wire of two-inch 
mesh will suf^ce. The object is to keep strange and smaller 
birds out as well as keep the pigeons in. There should be 
a door in the south end of the flying-pen. In some localities, 
on account of the prevalence of the thieving English spar- 
row, it will be necessary to use wire of one-inch mesh in 
order to protect the grain in the self-feeder from spoliation. 

In stretching the wire for the flying-pen, you will have to 
lay several strips of the netting parallel in order to get the 
full width of the yard. In piecing these widths together, 
do not tie them with short pieces of wire, but use one long 
])iece of No. 1 8 or 20 iron wire and weave it in and out of the 
netting, first in one width, then in the other. In this man- 
ner you can unite two widths of netting in one-tenth the 
time needed to apply short pieces of tie-wire. 

The feeding trough should rest on a single post at the 
bcick of the flying-pen, but not close up to the wire, so that 
the birds can perch all around it. A simple form of self- 
feeder protected at the top from rain, is the best. It is buili 
entirely of pine wood. It is best to invert a tin pan on the 
top of the post on which the feeder rests so that if mice climb 
up the post (if rough) they cannot reach the grain in the 
feeder. 

The bath-pan is j^laced on the ground at the back of the 
ilving-pen. The best pattern is of galvanized iron, twenty 
inches in diameter and five inches deep. It should be filled 
with fresh water once or twice a day. The pigeons go to 

25 




FLYING-PEN VIEWED FROM THE SOUTH SIDE. 

This photograph of a part of oue of our breedinj,' outflts Rt Pembroke shows the construction 
of thG flying pen, tlie location of the self-feeder, etc. The pipe supplies water for the bath-pans 
and saves steps to carry water in pails. 



26 



it early every morning and bathe in it, keeping their feathers 
free from vermin by this habit. They drink from the pan 
before bathing. When thin ice forms in winter, they break 
it and splash their wings about as in summer. If you place 
the bath-pan close to the netting at the back of the flying- 
pen, you may fill it with water from a pail outside the pen by 
pouring the water through the netting. After a flock of 
birds have bathed in the pan, a thick, greasy scum may be 
observed on the surface of the water. 




THE BATH-PAN. 

This is made of galvanized iron, is twenty inches in diameter and five incnes tieep. It 
should be filled with water once or twice a day. The pigeons drink from it and bathe in it- 
They are clean and dainty and if necessary they will break the thin ice in the winter in orde^ 
to get into their daily ba li. 

The space from the rear of the squab house to the ground 
should be trellised with narrow stripping so that the pigeons 
cannot fly under the squab house from the pen. Trellis 
work instead of solid boards is used in order that there may 
be a free circulation of light and air under the house, thu5> 
preventing rats from obtaining a lodging and also making 
ventilation good. 




FILI>»NG THE SELF-FEEDER WITH GRAIN. 

This shows the construftioii of the feeder, whioli is built wliolly of pine. As the pigeons 
eat, the Kraln drops down on tlie inside. One tilling of the feeder will last two or three ilays, 
sometimes a week (depending on the size of the flock.) In a corner of the above picture, on the 
:'round of the flying pen, may be seen the straw, grass, etc., used by the pigeons in building their 

nests. 



28 



In the scjuab house, ^it the bottom of the nest-boxes, reach- 
ing from them to the f^oor, is trelhs work through, which in 
winter the birds will stretch their necks to feed from a trough 
which should he placed at the bottom of the passageway. 

In the winter, or in a long stretch of rainy weather, a lamp 
or small oil-stove may be set in the passageway to help drive 
olT the moisture. The object should not be to raise the tem- 
perature of the squab house, but merely to evaporate the 
moistin-e in the air. We have hot water pipes nuniing the 
'.entire length of the passageways of our squab hou.ses but 
tiiey are not kept hot enough to heat the air tc^ any extent. 
We have set faucets at regular intervals and can draw water 
without going to tlic front of the house. For the same 
reason we have set pipes below the frost line in the ground 
at the end of the flying-pens so that we can get a water sup- 
ply easily for the bath-pans. We have faucets at the top of 
the ground, also valves sunk below the surface so that we 
can shut ofT the water in winter and prevent freezing in the 
pipes where they are exposed to the air. 

We have experimented with all kinds of nappies and pans 
in the nest-boxes and believe that most of the success at- 
tained is due to the use of the nappies described. Do not 
use the earthenware nests or wooden boxes which you mav 
find advertised. 

HOW TO REMODEL A POULTRY HOUSE. 

Probably most breeders will start in the pigeon industry 
by remodeling an old poultry house. The foregoing instruc- 

29 




OLD POULTRY HOUSE FIXKD FOR PIGEONS. 

This is the place wliere we licmsed (nir first sriuab-lireedeis. It was a cheap and ungainly 
affair, but it answered for a while. Anj' old poultry house may be remodeled for pigeons at a 
trifling expense. 



30 



tions have given the particulars of as substantial and con- 
venient a plant as it is necessary to build. An old poultry 
house may be remodeled in a day with little expense save 
the labor involved and the remodeled building- will answer 
the purpose well. 

First elevate the poultry house. Set it on four or more 
posts a foot or a foot and a half from the ground so as to get 
a protection from rats and dampness. Arrange the flying- 
pen on the south side as previously described. A passage- 
way for tlie quick manipulation of the nest-boxes is not 
needed. Simply build the boxing in the form of nests against 
the north and end walls of the building and you have a prac- 
tical arrangement. Set the roosts and wind-break as de- 
scribed and arrange the windows so that they may be closed 
at night in the winter. 

To remove the squabs and clean the nests, in such a house, 
you enter the door of the house and approach the nests from 
the front. It is not so convenient as the passageway method 
because you will drive some of the birds out of the house, 
but the interruption is not serious and when you have left 
the house they will fly back to their nests. 

HOW TO USE A GARRET OR BARN LOFT. 

W'e have known city people without a square foot of 
ground to make a success in squalj raising by housing the 
])igeons in a garret. Tn such cases the flying-pen is built 
out from the window or skylight as shown in the illustration, 
so as to give the birds an opportunity to get light and air. 

31 



The garret is lined with the nests. The clanger to watch out 
for in such a location is mice. Tin or fine mesh wire should 
be used plentifully in the corners and on the floors of the 
garret, or rats will get in and kill the squabs. With careful 
tinning, trouble will be avoided. 

It is also possible to utilize the upper part of a barn. The 




HOW TO KEKP PIGEONS IN A GAKREX. 

Build a tlyiiiK peu out from the windows (or Skylight) and line the garret with nests. City 
people wlio may have no laud can breed squabs suiH'essfully and with little effort, in this way. 
It is not necessary to heat the garret— the pigeons thrive no matter how cold is the weather. A 
barn wliich has a loft may be arranged in practically the same manner. 



flying-pen should project out from the roof just as in the 
case of the garret already described. The loft may be 
reached either by stairs or a ladder. It should be completely 
boarded in and the floor protected all around by fine mesh 
wire, or tin, so that rats cannot get at the interior. 

Many beginners wish to raise squabs until they get a flock 

33 



which will make removal to a farm profitable. They can 
work intelligently and securely (if they are cramped for 
room), with either the back-yard, the garret or the barn ar- 
rangement, give the business a thorough test and then move 
to a farm if their ambition leads them to make the profit 
which thousands of pairs of breeders earn. 

HOW TO FEED. 

The feed consists of red wheat, cracked corn, kafiir corn, 
Canada peas, hempseed, oyster shells and salt, all cheap and 
easily obtained. No other food is given. No sloppy food is 
given and there is no mechanical preparation of the food. 
The diet does not vary from one end of the year to the other, 
with this exception, that in winter you allow two parts of 
corn to one of wheat — in summer one part of corn to two 
of wheat. A summary of the food follows : 

1. Red Wheat. This may l)e procured anywhere at a 
cost of from $1.30 to $1.50 per 100 pounds. (Do not feed 
white wheat, it will cause diarrhoea.) 

2. Cracked Corn. This costs from 95 cents to $1.10 per 
100 pounds. (Do not feed the whole corn. It is hard to 
digest and is especially unsuited to young stock, making 
hard labor for their crops.) 

3. Kaffir Corn, or Egyptian Wheat. This is procurable 
anywhere. It is grown principally in the South and West, 
the largest supply coming from Kansas. It costs from $1.15 
to $1.50 for 100 pounds. It will grow in localities where 
there is little or no rain. Pigeons come to the hand fast, for 

33 




ANOTHER A'lEW OF THE SELF-FEEDER. 

The top (which is on liiiiges"; shouhl be covered witli taiietl paper so that the Krain will keep 
dry in storm weather. 



34 



it, thus demonstrating" that it is a well-hked food. This corn 
makes white flour and is an ideal food for pigeons. The 
color of the food supply affects to a degree the color of the 
squab meat, and as white squab meat commands the highest 
price, plenty of kafiir corn should be fed. 

4 and 5. Canada Peas and llempseed. These are fed, 
not regularly, on account of their expense, but as dainties, 
in periods of moulting, extra strain, etc. Canada peas cost 
about $1.25 a bushel (about sixty pounds); hempseed costs 
from $3.50 to $4 per 100 pounds. 

6. Oyster Shells. These cost from 45 to 65 cents per 100 
pounds, ground. They should be kept before the pigeons 
all the time in a special trough. 

7. Salt. Coarse ground salt should be purchased and 
kept before the pigeons all the time in a special trough. They 
will eat it as they feel the need of it. On the south end of 
some of our squab houses, on the pen side, we have pieces 
of rock salt hung up, enclosed in wire netting. The birds 
peck at these pieces occasionally. They are not necessary, 
however, provided coarse salt is kept before them. 

8. Grit. The yard of the flying-pen should be gravelled, 
not grassed. We buy the same kind of grit as is used for 
poultry, only slightly flner. 

9. Nesting Material. On the wind-break in the centre 
of the squab house, also in a corner of the yard, keep a small 
pile of hay. straw and green field grass for the use of the 
pigeons in building their nests. They Avill fly to the pile and 
take what they need. W^e have seen tobacco stems recom- 

35 










2 ^ ■$ 

V >> 

P= ^ oT 
^ - S 

II 



36 



mended for this purpose, as a preventive of lice, but we have 
found them too coarse for nesting material and now never 
use them. There will be no trouble from lice if ordinary 
cleanliness is observed. 

Hempseed and peas arc useful dainties in getting ac- 
quainted with your birds. They will flock to your hand and 
eat them greedily. 

Our practice is to go light on the corn, in feeding. Corn 
is carbonaceous and fat-producing and the pigeons become 
weakened under such a diet. It heats the blood and lays 
the system open to an attack of canker. 

The self-feeder and the feeding-troughs in the squab house 
should be kept supplied with a mixture of the grains before 
noted. We have seen recommendations to feed the birds 
once or twice a day only what they would clean up at one 
feeding but have found si.-.ch advice to be wholly wrong when 
breeding on a large scale. \^^hen the food supply is of the 
"clean-uD" kind, and consequently not generous, the young 
sc[uabs will be heard squeaking loudly for food. Where a 
continuous supply is at h.and, one seldom hears the hungry 
cry of a squab, and all grow quickly and strongly to market 
size. It is poor economy to furnish a meagre and uncertain 
supplv of food. Do not fear that the pigeons will waste the 
grain provided bv a bountiful self-feeding trough. They will 
eat what they need for themselves and the squabs and never 
Vvill gorge noi lose their trim, racy shape. \\"e have discov- 
ered no diseases caused by overfeeding. 

Salt fish and preparations of mortar and grit are imprac- 




INSIDK OF SQUAB HOUSK. 

(See Page 36 for Outside View. J 



38 



tical and not at all necessary in the diet of pigeons. 

The proper mixture, as we have noted before, is two parts 
of corn to one of wheat, in winter, and two parts of wheat to 
one of corn in summer. Fill the self-feeder and the eating- 
trough in the squab house with the mixture. The other 
food materials, the dainties, should be fed by hand, throwing 
handfuls on the floor of the squab house or flying-pen when- 
ever you think the pigeons need stimulating. Vary the diet. 
Alternate with the dainties. If you feed a plain mixture too 
long, the pigeons will eat with poor appetites and the size 
of the squabs will deteriorate. Force your feed and you will 
force the size of the squabs. The principle is the same in 
feeding all live stock. Force coal under a boiler and you 
will force the steam pressure. Increase the fuel in the crops 
of the pigeons and you will increase the size of the squabs. 

The bath-pan should be filled twice a day if the breeder is 
solicitous as to the cleanliness of his birds. All the birds 
bathe, but some not every day. They never take cold in this 
way. The cause of a cold is always a damp, draughty house. 
Their feet are not sensitive and in winter they have no hesi- 
tation in breaking thin ice and stepping into the pan. They 
drink from the bath-pan. not continually inserting the bill 
and raising the head, but obtaining their fill usually at one 
insertion of the bill. They do not rustle in the dirt and 
cleanse th.emselves in tliis way, as a hen does. 

In cold weather, fill the pigeons' bath and drinking dishes 
with warm water. They appreciate it, as do all live stock. 



39 



BREEDING HABITS. 

The hen pigeon builds the nest, which is not an elaborate 
affair, simply a good-sized handhil of nesting- material laid 
straiglit in the nappy. They do not build a circular nest in 
the careful manner of some birds. If they wish to hatch on 
the floor of the squab house, their nest is there usually of a 
rudimentary pattern. 

When the nest is built, the cock begins to "drive" the hen 
around the house and pen. In a flock of pigeons on the roof 




PIGEONS IN THE SUN. 

This roof hiis no wind-liieak, but it is of the oriliiiary construction, which is clieaper than tlie 
■wind-l)real^; style. Although the pairs are mixed together, each pair of mates remains constant 
for years, one male attending the same female all the time. 



of the scjual) house, you always will see one or two cocks 
"driving" their mates, pecking at them and nagging them 
with the purpose of forcing them onto the nest to lay the 
eggs. The cock seems to take more interest in the coming 
family than the hen. 

The hen lays one egg in the nest, then skips a day and 

40 



lays the second egg on the third day. Seventeen days after 
being laid the eggs hatch. The egg first laid hatches a day 
before the second, sometimes, but usually the parents do not 
sit close on first egg, but stand over it, and do not 
incubate it. Sometimes one squal) may get more than its 
share of food, and the younger one will weaken and die. 
This seldom happens but if you see one squab considerably 
larger than the other, the thing to do is to exchange with 
■a squab from another nest that is nearer the size of the re- 
maining squab. Tlie old birds will not notice the change 
but will continue feeding the foster scjuab. 

From the day of its hatching to market time the squab 
is fed by its parents. The first food is a liquid secreted in 
the crop of both cock and hen, and called pigeons' milk. 
The parent pigeons o])en their bills and the squabs thrust 
their liills within to get sustenance. This supply of pigeons' 
milk lasts from five to six days. It gradually grows thicker 
and in a week is found to be mixed with corn and wheat in 
small particles. When about ten days old. the squabs are 
eating the hard grain from the crops of the mature cock and 
hen. which fill up at the trough, then take a drink of water 
and fly to the nest to minister to the little ones. You see how 
important it is to have food available at all times. 

In 14, 15 or 16 days after the first pair of squabs have 
been hatched, the cock begins "driving" the hen again. This 
shows the necessity of a second nest for the pair. In this 
second nest the hen lays two more eggs, and the care of the 
first pair of squabs, now between two and three weeks old, 

41 







PAIR OF EGGS. 



-JIST HATCHKI). 






' -ft 



ONE WEEK OI.D. 

.So rapidly do squabs grow that you will quickly 
notice their increase in size from day to day. 




TWO WEEKS OLD. 



42 



devolves upon the cock. When this pair is four weeks old, 
it is taken out of the nest and killed and both the mature 
birds are concerned tlien only with the new hatch. This 
sequence of eggs and hatches goes on all the time. 

If there are not two nests, the two new eggs will be laid 
in the nest where are the growing squabs and the parents 
in their eagerness to sit on the new eggs will push the squabs 




THREE WEEKS OL,l>. 

In this picture tlie sciuabs are seen in the 
smaller nappy, to which they were transferred 
when two weeks old and which remains their 
home until they are killed for market. 




FOUR WEEKS OtD. 



out of the nest and they will die for lack of sustenance. 

The hen lays the eggs about four o'clock in the afternoon. 
The cock and hen take turns at covering the eggs, the hen 
sitting durnig the night until about ten o'clock in the morn- 
ing, when the cock relieves her, remaining on until the latter 
part of the afternoon. 



43 



^^'he^ the nappies are changed at the end of two weeks, 
the nest-box should be scraped clean with a trowel. When 
the squabs are taken out for market at the end of four weeks, 
the nappy should be washed and scalded and the nest-box 
whitewashed. If the nappies are changed and the whitewash 
used regularly, no trouble from parasites will result. In the 
summer it is well to add a little carbolic acid to the white- 
wash as an extra precaution. 

HOW TO MATE. 

One way of mating pigeons is to turn males and females 
in equal number into the same pen. They will seek their 
own mates and settle down to steady reproduction. Another 
method is to place the male and female which you wish to 
]-jair in a mating coop or hutch. In the course of a few days 
they will mate and then you may turn them loose in the big- 
pen with th.e others. The latter meth.od is necessary when 
improving your flock by the addition of new blood, or when 
keeping a positive record of the ancestry of each pair. By 
studving vour matings, you may improve the efficiency of 
your flock. If you are raising squabs for breeders, you 
should use the mating coop constantly so as not to inbreed, 
which the young pigeons might do if left to chance. 

In case a pigeon loses its mate by death or accident, the 
sex of the dead one must be ascertained and a live pigeon of 
tlie same sex introduced to the pen to mate with the odd one. 
Or the live one should be removed from the pen and placed 
in the mating coop with a pigeon of the opposite sex. 

44 



The mating coop should have a partition of lattice work 
or wire. Place the cock in one side, the hen in the other, 
and leave them thus for two or three days to flirt and tease 
each other, then remove the central lattice work or wire and 
they usually will mate. If they show no disposition to mate 
but on the contrary fight, replace the partition and try them 
for two or three days longer. If they refuse to mate after 
two or three thorough trials, do not experiment any more 
with them, but select other mates. Be sure your birds are 
mated before putting them together in the squab house, 
otherwise a stray cock will visit the nests in search of a mate, 
breaking up hatchings and causing fights. 

The determination of the sex of pigeons is difficult. The 
bones at the vent of a female are wider apart than of a male. 
If you hold the beak of a pigeon in one hand and the feet 
in the other, stretching them out, the male bird usuallv will 
hug his tail close to its body — the female will throw her tail. 
The best way to determine the sex is to watch the birds. 
The male is more lively than the female, and does more 
cooing, and in flirting with her usually turns around several 
times, while the female seldom turns more than half way 
around. The male may be seen pecking at the female and 
driving her to nest. When one pigeon is seen chasing an- 
other inside and outside the squab house, the driven one is 
the female and the driver her mate. 

The Runt pigeons are the largest and have the biggest 
squabs, but they are poor breeders, and it takes the squabs 
from one to two weeks longer to reach market size. The 

45 




PIGEONS OX THE ROOF OF THE SQUAB HOUSE. 

Protected from northerly wind and storms by the jog in the roof, they walk about here for 
hours, then- mates being on the nests inside. At night all go inside the squab house. Winter or 
summer, some of the pigeons always may be seen on the roof. 



46 



straight Homer is the best for the practical squab raiser. 
Runts are expensive, costing- from $6 to $io a pair, because 
f;hey are hard to raise. Some squab breeders have a few 
pairs of Runts in order to cross occasionally with Homers, 
but we do not advise it. You wall ol^tain better results by 
judiciously out-breeding from selected Homers, forcing 
along the path of advancement the strains that are produc- 
ing the most and the biggest squabs. 

Neither the squalj-l^reeder nor the flying-Homer breeder 
is much concerned about the color of feathers. There are 
blue checkers, red checkers, black checkers, silver, blue, 
brown, red, in fact about all the colors of the rainbow. Color 
has no relation to the ability of a pair to breed a large pair 
of squabs. We wish speciall)^ to emphasize the fact that the 
color of the feathers has no influence on the color of the skin 
of the squab. A white-feathered bird does not mean a whiter- 
skinned squab. The feed affects the color of the meat a 
little. A corn-fed pigeon v.ill be yellower than one fed on 
a mixture. Squabs with dark skins (almost black in some 
cases) are the product of blood matings. The trouble with 
a dark-colored squall is in the blood and the only remedy 
is to get rid of them either b_v killing the parents or by re- 
mating. Usually the trouble comes from one parent bird, 
which you can find by turning up the feathers and examining 
the skin. Having found the bird which is at fault, kill it. 
This point has come uf) continually in our correspondence. 
The erroneous belief that white-feathered birds produce the 
whitest-skinned squabs seems to be widespread and we are 




HOW TO HANDLE A PIGEON. 

The fingers of one hand grasp both the feet and the wings, and tlie bird can neitlier struggle 
nor flutter ; it immediately becomes calm, realizing that it is mastered. 



48 



asked sometimes for a flock of breeders "all white." Our 
experience with all white Homers is that they have less 
stamina than the colored ones. (This is also the experience 
of poultrymen with all white fowls; they are not hardy.) 
The marketmen will take two or three pairs of dark-skinned 
squabs in a bunch without comment, but an excess of dark 
ones will provoke a cut in price. Breeders who are shipping- 
only the undressed squabs should pluck feathers now and 
then to see just what color of squabs they are getting. The 
dark-colored squabs are just as good eating as the light- 
colored ones, but buyers for the hotels and clubs, and those 
who visit the stalls generally, pick out the plump white- 
skinned squabs in preference to the plump dark-skinned 
ones. As a rule, squabs from Homer pigeons are white- 
skinned — the dark-colored squab is an exception. 

FEW AILMENTS. 

Pigeons have few diseases. Jf housed properly, ailments 
are seldom encountered. Prevention is much easier and far 
more satisfactory than cure. When we discover an ailing- 
pigeon, we at once isolate it and if it does not improve, kill 
it. According to Nature's plans for the survival of the fit- 
test, it is best to get weak and sick pigeons out of the way, 
then you are sure that your flock is growing hardier and 
stronger all the time. If there is a diseased pigeon, this is a 
sign of constitutional weakness, and you do not wish such 
cjualities perpetuated. It does not pay to cure the pigeon. 
You ought to kill it. 

49 



Canker is tlie most conimon ailment. It is something like 
diphtheria, a collection or false membrane forming in the 
throat. Inject a solution of alnm into the throat and this 
inembrane usually comes away. 

''Going light" is a disease manifested by a wasting away. 
If vou see a pigeon droopin,g in a corner, with no ambition 
CO fly, catch it and you will find usually a prominent breast 
bone and its feathers soiled by diarrhoea. It takes too much 
time and trouble to cure a pigeon thus affected. We take it 
as a sign that a pigeon thus affected has not stamina enough 
to transmit desirable qualities, and kill the bird. 

We have learned that canker and kindred diseases are 
caused bv an excess of corn. A corn diet is carbonaceous 
and fat-producing and the pigeons grow weak when they 
get too much of it, and fall a prey to disease. 

Pigeons kept in a house or loft artificially heated will raise 
few squabs and will become tender. The coldest weather 
will have no effect on a flock. The old birds protect the 
squabs intelligently in freezing weather and do not leave 
the nests for long periods. 

On cold and stormy days when the sun is hid. shut down 
the windows of the squab house and do not let the pigeons 
into the flying-pen until the sun comes out again. 

When jMgeons are from fom* to eight weeks old, they are 
in their most precarious period. This is the time of the first 
moult, and moults are a trying condition for all breeding 
stock, being a tax on the vitality. \\'hen a pigeon has safely 
passed this first period, the breeder does not worry much 

50 



about its future existence. 

In the case of young birds, the first mating does not 
amount to much, the eggs being undersized and the squabs 
lacking in vitah'ty. 

HOW TO KILL AND COOL THE SQUABS. 

To kill a squab, do not use a knife, as the writers advise. 
Hold the squab in the left hand. Take the head in the right 
Avith the thumb at the base of the bill, give it a slight 
pull, then a push back. This dislocates the neck and in the 
break of the spinal column a small cavity forms, and this fills 
with the blood, draining the body. Pull hard and you wrench 
the head from the body and spoil the looks of the squab. The 
knack is easily acquired. The fi.rst time a woman tries it, she 
may feel a bit squeamish, but not after she has mastered the 
operation with the second or third squab. It is painless to 
the squab and requires but little strength on the part of the 
operator — merely a little skill which is quickly acquired. 

Squabs to be killed should be gathered in the morning, 
because then their crops are empty. 

The cooling of the killed squab is very important. It cost 
ns a good deal to learn the right way. They should not be 
laid on a board or table, for the tender flesh will turn green 
at tlie spot where it touches anything. They should not be 
hung where rats, cats or dogs can get at them. We have 
lengths of two by four inch studding and these lengths are 
hung from the wall by pieces of wire. If the studding is 
propped up with boards at each end, cats and mice will crawl 

51 




HOW NOT TO KILL A SQUAB. 

The position of the right haud is correct, but the Ipf t hand should grasp tlie neck of the 
squab close to the fingers of the right. Pull firmly, then push back, and the spine will be broken, 
the squab expiring instantly. With the hands as shown in tlie picture, the etfert of a pull will 
be to separate the head from the body. Having illustrated the mistaken way to kill a squab, we 
have impressed on the operator what to avoid. The correct method is quickly acquired if you 
studiously avoid the wrong position of tlie left hand. 



52 



up, then along the studding- and de\our the squabs, but 
neither cats nor mice can travel along the wires from which 
our studding hangs. Every four inches along the studding 
two nine-penny wire finish nails (a finish nail because no head 
is wanted) are driven in for half an inch or so. The feet of 
the squab are put between the two nails and the toes prevent 
the bird from dropping to the floor. We number the nails 




THREE DRESSED .SQUABS ON A PLATTER. 

Squabs bred from our Homers grow at four weeks to weigh from ten ounces to a pound. The 
average squab in the Boston market weighs from seven to ten ounces. No one who has not 
eaten a squab can imagine how delicious the meat is. The bones are small and tliere is more 
meat on a squab than on tlie average duck. 



in sequence and in hanging up the squabs to cool we know 
when we have finished hanging just how many squabs we 
will send to market the next day. 

The squabs should be allowed to remain over night. In 
the morning the animal heat will be entirely gone, and the 
birds should be sent at once to market. 

The ideal squab is not only large and plump but also has 

53 



a clean crop (no food in it to sour), has been neatly killed 
(no blood showing) and has clean feet. 

Ship in small quantities, particularly in the summer. Do 
not pack up an enormous, box, or' the bottom layers will 
suffer. * 

Inability to cool the killed squabs properly has discour- 
aged more squab breeders than all other causes combined. 
Follow the foregoing rules carefully and you will wonder 
how anybody could have had any difficulty. 

If you are delivering plucked squabs to your market, pick 
the feathers out when the bird is warm, immediately after 
killing. Work fast but gently, or you will tear the delicate 
flesh. When picked clean, throw the squab into cold water 
and leave it there over night to plump out and harden 
the flesh. In the sunmier use ice-water. 

During the last fev/ days of its growth, the squab puts on 
more feathers than flesh. If you discover squabs whose 
feathers are not prettily out but which are fat and plump 
enough for market, you may save a week (if you are deliver- 
ing dressed squabs) by killing and plucking them. 

A skillful plucker will strip the feathers from squabs at 
the rate of ten to twenty squabs an hour. A fast workman 
should pluck 200 a day. 

HOW TO SHIP, 

Pio-eons may be shipped anywhere safely. Of all live 
stock, they are the easiest transported. Breeders of flying 
Homers in America frequently ship as far as Australia, the 

54 



birds arriving- in ]-)erfect condition. We have shipped scjuab 
breeders to the far v.est, tlie south, and distant points in 
Canada, and have never lost one by death or accident. How 
is this done? Tliere is a Httle knack to it. The nsual fault 
of inexperienced shippers is that the box or crate is too high, 
and too large, giving an opportunity for one bird to pass 
another bv tlying over its head. If there is too much room 
between the top and bottom of the crates feathers will be 
rumpled and pulled out, and the birds by crowding, will 
suffocate one or two. A large, heavy crate also adds enor- 
mouslv to the express charges. It is not pleasant to buy 
pigeons and receive them in a cumbrous box weighing from 
-5 to 75 pounds, on which the express charges are more 
than double what they would be were the birds crated prop- 
erly. The best wood to use in crating is that of which Qgg 
crates are made. It is thin (about one-eighth of an inch), 
very light and tough and splits e\ enly. The ends and back 
of the crate should be made of half-inch or five-eighths pine 
boxing. If you procure this sawed six inches wide, in vary- 
ing lengths, you may !uake up crates to suit your order. The 
floor or bottom of the crate should be solid, also the sides 
and back. For the front and top, split the thin stuff about 
two inches wide and tack to the boxing with three-penny 
nails. The pigeons should be packed closely (but not too 
close), giving each room to turn and move about. In the 
six-inch space they have just about enough room to stand, 
and the contact of their heads with the top slats will remind 
them that they must not attempt to fly, and they do not. If 



55 




HOAV TO COOL, THE KILLED SQUABS. 

The lartre size of scnuibs at four weeks of :i!^e may be jiidKed from tlie fact that the wooden 
stiuldiiiK in the above photograph is two inches thick. The nails are ninepenny wire finish, and 
the distance between the pairs of nails is four inches. The studding is liuiii; at the ends by wire 
fastened to the ceiling so that rats and cats cannot get at tlie syuabs wlien they are cooling over 
iiiglit. 



56 



lliev are o;oing to a point only a day or a day and a night dis- 
tant, they need no feed nor water. If the destination is more 
remote, two tin cups, one for grain, the other for water, 
should be tacked to the inside of the crate. A sponge should 
be placed in the water dish and wired in loosely so the birds 
cannot peck it out. This prevents the water from being 
spilled in transit. A given quantity of water lasts longer and 
keeps cleaner. For a very long journey, a bag of grain 
should be nailed to the crate. It is the duty of the express 
messengers to feed and v/ater the birds en route, and they 
are so instructed by tlieir companies. It is well to tack a 
tag to the crate giving general directions to the express 
m.cssengers, in a case of long distance shipment. 

Do you know that live stock is transported long distances 
by the express companies at the rate charged for ordinary 
merchandise? For carrying live stock short distances, the 
animal rate (which is double the merchandise rate) is 
charged. This is a peculiar -rule, and it works so that the 
buyer at a reniote point gets his shipment cheaper than the 
buyer nearer us. For instance, we can ship a crate of pigeons 
to Chicago from Boston cheaper than we can to Buffalo. 
All the express companies doing business in the United 
States and Canada ha^'e the same rule, which is, that between 
points where the single or merchandise rate is $2 or more 
per 100 pounds, live animals, boxed, crated or caged, are 
charged for transportation at the single or merchandise rate. 
Between points where the single or merchandise rate is less 
than $2 per 100 pounds, live animals are charged the animal 

57 



rate (which is double the merchandise rate). In order to 
obtain the lowest rate of transportation, the value of each 
pigeon must be stated b}' the shipper at $5 or less. At one 
time we bought a lot of fine Homers at $10 a pair and when 
they arrived we were asked to pay a big transportation 
charge. We discovered on investigation that the shipper, 
when asked the ^'aluation by his agent, proudly replied (wish- 
ing to convince us perhaps that he was selling the birds to 
us at half price) : "Ten dollars apiece." The agent made no 
argument with the shipper (they seldom do) and accordingly 
billed the charges to us at a rate just double what he would 
have billed had the shipper declared the valuation $5 apiece, 
and we had to pay accordingly for the exhibition of pride 
made by the shipper. W'hen the agent asks you the valua- 
tion of the pigeons, get it within the ^^ limit, or your man 
at the other end will have an extra charge and a sharp letter 
to send back to you. 

We have seen breeders who have been shipping live stock 
for years and they never heard of the above rule of the ex- 
press companies, and also we have seen scores of express 
agents who did not know of their own rule, but always 
charged the animal rate on animal shipments. But the rule 
is found in every graduated charge book of every express 
company, and the experienced express men and experienced 
shippers know all about it. If the agent in your town is 
ignorant of the rule, ask hirn for his graduated charge book 
and you will find it under the classification "Animals." 
Every customer of ours entitled to the single or merchandise 

58 



rate on his shipment gets a cara iroin us in our letter to him 
with the rule printed on it. Many express agents at local 
points seldom handle a live animal shipment and do not 
know how to charge for it. 

A live animal contract release, to be signed both by ship- 
per and express agent, is needed in all cases where the value 
of the shipment is over $5. If pigeons which we ship are 
killed in a smash-up, vx^e can recover from the company. We 
have no hesitation, therefore, in guaranteeing the safe de- 
livery of our pigeons to customers. Our responsibility does 
not end when vve have given them to the expressman. Our 
guarantee follows them as long as they are in the hands of 
the express company. We will put them into your hands 
safe and sound. 

Once in a while you will read of live stock and breeding 
associations getting together and complaining about the 
"exorbitant rates" charged b}^ the express companies. The 
trouble is not with the rates of the express companies, but 
lies wholly in the ignorance of the breeders who meet to 
complain. They simply do not know how to ship and how 
to talk to the express agents. 

We never read the above advice as to shipping live stock 
in any book or paper. It is the product of our own experi- 
ence and the information cost us at least $100 in excess 
charges before we learned how to get the low rate. It is 
worth dollars to our customers, and that is why we have 
given it here in detail. 

Killed squabs go to market at the rate charged for ordi- 

59 




HAVING HIS PICTURE TAKEN. 

ThispiKeon.oiieof the best of our squiih-breedprs, is a pet and will fly to tlie hand, 
mained still for over a iiiiuute while the photoyrrapher focussed the camera. 



He re- 



eo 



nary merchandise, no matter what the distance. Breeders 
having special customers who wish the squabs pkicked 
should pack them loose in a clean pine box (with ice in the 
summer) and nail the box up tight. Such shipments go 
through m splendid condition and if the breeder has a choice 
article, with his trade mark stamped on the box, he gets the 
fancy price. Squabs which reach the Boston market from 
jobbers in Philadelphia and New York are plucked and 
packed with ice in barrels. Breeders around Boston who 
reach the Boston market with undressed squabs send them 
in wicker hampers or baskets on the morning of the day 
after they are killed. 

BOOKKEEPING. 

If you wish to have a very accurate record of your breed- 
ers, or if you are breeding pedigreed stock, you should mark 
the squabs when they are four or five days old. The only 
practical method is to place around one leg of the squab a 
seamless metal band, usually made of aluminum and having 
stamped on it your initials and a designating number, to 
correspond to the number of the card in your card index. 
When the squab is young, the toes may be squeezed easily 
through the band. As the squab grows, the growth of the 
claws makes the removal of the band impossible. The squab 
should be inspected occasionally for a day or two after you 
have put on the band, to make sure that it has not worked 
ofif (which sometimes happens). Having marked your breed- 
ers, you know each by its number, and you may make dif- 

61 



fereiit matings and keep a record which cannot get mixed. 

On the left of your record page or card write the date of 
laying, then figure 17 days ahead and write the day of hatch- 
ing. When you get the hatches, and as the squabs grow to 
market size, write whatever memoranda concerning their 
size, color, etc., you wish. As the same pair of birds occupy 
the same pair of nests year after year, your record will be 
an accurate one. 

If you allow live cents a month for the board of one pair 
of breeding pigeons, you can figure the amount of grain 
needed to a nicety. In a large flock, fifty cents a year will 
cover the cost. A pair of pigeons not breeding will cost 
only thirty-six cents a year. 

TRAINED FLYERS. 

A very profitable business may be built up in flying Hom- 
ers. If you have the time and the inclination, do not fail 
to have a pen of flyers and pens of fancy varieties of pigeons. 
Champion flyers and fancy birds sell from $10 to $100 and 
more, everything depending on the skill of the breeder. 

Young birds raised in your own squab house may be al- 
lowed to fly wide in the neighborhood, if you choose. They 
will not leave you. If you buy young birds of us, with the 
intention of raising flying Homers, you may dispense with 
the flying-pen. (But all market squab-breeders use flying- 
pens and confine their birds, so as to control their feeding, 
etc.) If you buy old birds of us, and have no flying-pen, 
they will leave you and fly back to us to the squab house 
where they were raised. If you live far from us, it may take 

62 



the pigeons some time to work back, but barring accident, 
they will turn up at our place some time, for that is the 
working of the instinct of Homer pigeons. 

The young Homers when fi\;e months old are strong 
enough to be trained to fly. Take them in a basket (having 
omitted to feed them) a mile or two away, and lil)erate them 
one by one. They will circle in the air, then choose the cor- 
rect course, "^^ou should liave left grain for them as a re- 
ward for their safe arrival home, and an inducement for their 
next experience in flying. Two or three days later take or 
send them away five miles and repeat. Next try ten miles, 
and so work on by easy stages up to 75 or 100 miles. If you 
have a friend in another city, you may send your birds in 
a basket to him with instructions to liberate certain ones at 
certain hours, or you may send the basket by train to any 
express agent, along with a letter telling him to liberate the 
birds at a certain hour and send the basket back to you. 

If you wish to have the bird carry a message, write it on 
a piece of cigarette paper (or any strong tissue), wrap the 
paper around the leg of the bird and tie with thread ; or, you 
may tie the tissue around one of the tail feathers. A thin 
aluminum tube containing the message may be fastened to 
a leg, or to a tail feather. 

A trap window should be constructed to time the arrival 
home of birds. This is an aperture about six inches 
square closed by wires hanging from a piece of wood at the 
top of the aperture and swinging inward, but held close to 
the aperture by its own weight. The pigeon cannot fly out 
but on its return home (if you have sprinkled grain on the 

C3 




THE SQUAB liKEEDING RANCH 




ONE OF THE. 



64 




AT PEMBROKE, MASSACHUSETTS. 




l,ONG SQUAB HOUSKS. 



65 



inside of the house, next the wires) the bird wiH push the 
wire door and go in. It takes only a day or two for the 
pigeon to become accustomed to the trap. If you connect 
the trap with a simple make and break electric circuit, the 
pigeon on its arrival home from its llight will ring a bell in 
any part of your house or barn. 

When you have a record of -the flyers, you will have a 
guide for mating. The majority of fanciers recommend a 
medium-sized Homer. A large hen should be mated to a 
small cock, or a large cock to a small hen. Instead of mat- 
ing birds of equal age, try an old cock with a young hen, and 
vice versa. For vitality and stamina, it is best to mate birds 
of different colors. 

A pair of breeding pigeons will occupy the same pair of 
nests year after year, and they never will change mates, but 
you may break up an undesirable mating if you choose and 
re-mate the birds accordmg to your determination, using the 
mating coop as described. 

CHEAP BREEDERS ARE EXPENSIVE. 

There is a great difference between common and Homer 
pigeons, although they look alike to a beginner without ad- 
vice. Indeed, there are many common pigeons which are 
larger and fatter than Homers, but the squabs they raise are 
as skinny as sparrows. It is an ett'ect not of flesh but of 
feathers, which in a common pigeon are fluffy. The feathers 
of a Homer are laid tight as a board, the skin fits as close 
as a glove, and the flesh is hard and firm. The flesh of a 
common pigeon is flabby and soft, and the skin loose. The 

66 



Homer has a long bill, its head in front of the eye is large. 
The bill of a common pigeon is short, its bill is more hooked 
and is sharper pointed, its head is shorter and more rounding 
on top. This is the kind of pigeon seen in the streets. They 
are bred only for use by undertakers at funerals, or by trap- 
shooters. They will live anywhere but a Homer has only 
one home. They cannot find their way back to their usual 
roosts if they wander away, but a Homer always flies straight 
home. The common pigeons will alight on any buildings. 
A Homer will alight only on its own squab house, and if 
prevented from so doing will remain circling in the air over- 
head for hours. Common pigeons will move from one neigh- 
borhood to another and will foul different springs and wells, 
becoming a nuisance in a country community. A Homer 
drinks at its own home. A common pigeon has little intelli- 
gence. A Homer has the largest brain and the most intelli- 
gence of any variety of pigeons. Common pigeons are worth 
about fifty cents a pair and are sold to the unsuspecting as 
Homers. "See how large they are," the dealer will say. But 
as we have said before, the size is one of feathers and not of 
flesh, and the squabs are worth only ten to twenty cents a 
pair, and cannot be sold in an intelligent market. It is use- 
less to think of starting with common pigeons and improv- 
ing them as you go along by mating them with Homers. 
At every mating you take from the Homer side the desirable 
qualities and add only undesirable qualities. It is like 
trying to make champagne out of dishwater. You 
can do something practical onh^ when you have 



eliminated the common pigeons entirely and are mating 
thoroughbred Homers. Do not be deceived by a hasty in- 
spection of pigeons — a common pigeon is unhke a Homer 
as a crow is unlike a grouse. It is hard to make some be- 
ginners comprehend this difference. All pigeons (especially 
if they are of similar-colored feathers) loof< alike to them and 
they buy the cheapest they can get, with the inevitable result 
that they quit the business in disgust or are forced to dispose 
of their foolish purchase to trap-shooters and begin again 
with an outfit of Homers. It stands to reason that a pair 
of birds capable of earning a fifty-cent pair of scjuabs once 
a month is easily worth from .$2 to $4, and that a pair of 
birds capable of earning only a ten-cent pair of squabs once 
in two or three months is worth only fifty cents. 

We had one or two unsatisfactory experiences with per- 
sons who had breecHng Homers for sale "cheap," "large 
flock very low," etc. These pigeons proved an expensive 
investment. They were either birds that had been worked 
for ten or twelve years, beyond their period of usefulness, or 
were too young, or were unmated, or there was an excess 
of cocks, and much time and effort were lost before we dis- 
covered the fact. One lot of Homers which we bought "at 
a bargain" produced very few No. i squabs, but mostly culls, 
and it was plain that the dealer of whom we ]:)urchased had 
got rid of something which was unprofitable for him. The 
reputation of the breeder goes a long way in a pigeon sale. 
The beginner will find liimseif safe when he pays a fair price 
to a reliable breeder, denuine cases of good Homer pigeons 

68 



being sold at '"'sacrifice prices" are rare. There is always 
something the matter witli cheap pigeons. As in every line 
of trade, and in farming and all stock-breeding, articles that 
earn more are worth more. 

SUPPLEMENT 



DEFINITION. 

Look In the Standard dictionary for the 
■word SQUAB and it is found to be derived 
from the Swedish sqvabb, meaning FAT, or 
fat flesh. Used as an adjective it means fat, 
bulky. As a noun, it not only means the 
young of pigeons, but also a well-stuffed 
cushion. The idea that a squab is fat is 
thoroughly conveyed by the use of the word. 
MANURE WORTH MONEY. 

Clean the droppings out of your squab 
house and flying pen once a month or so. 
This manure is in demand by tanneries and 
you should get at least $S0 a ton for it, or 
about fifty cents a bushel. The sale of the 
manure should pay from one-quarter to one- 
third of the grain bill. 

The tanneries want the manure for its al- 
kali, in which jt is very rich. 

There Is a point in this connection which 
you will find helpful. When washing the 
nappies In hot water, to cleanse them, you 
will not be obliged to use soap, for the al- 
kali in the manure will unite with the water 
to form a strong cleanser. 

Pigeon manure is in demand all the time 
by buyers who advertise for it. Here is an 
advertisement cut from the Boston Sunday 
Globe of Feb. 23, 1902: 

Wanted to Buy— Pigeon manure by J. J. 
McKittrick, 14 Kingston St., Charlestown, 
Mass. 

PLYING ROOM NEEDED. 

Customers occasionally write us and de- 
scribe a poultry house or other building 
which they have, and ask us to tell them 
how many pairs of pigeons it will accom- 
modate. 

No matter what the building, it will ac- 
commodate as many pairs of pigeons as you 
can find room for pairs of nest-boxes. Put 
in all the nest-boxes for which you have 
room, then you will know how many pairs of 
pigeons you can accommodate. As to the size 
of the flying pen, make it as small or as 
large as you have room. As we tell in writ- 
ing about how to utilize a garret or barn 



loft, you do not need any more than a place 
where the birds can hop or fly into the direct 
sunlight. Of course it is better to give a 
good-sized flying pen when you have room. 

Nail up the roosts in the squab house 
wherever you have room, placing them about 
15 inches apart. You understand only part 
of the birds roost at a given time. While 
some are roosting, others are on the roof or 
on the nests. The patent roosts which you 
will find advertised are not so good as the 
old-fashioned inverted V-shaped kind because 
the latter prevent a bird from soiling the 
bird underneath, while the patent ones do 
not. 

A letter is just at hand in which the writer 
says: "You do not say how many birds can 
be kept in one pen or flock." We repeat, , 
you can keep as many birds in one flock or 
one pen as you wish, or as you have room 
for pairs of nest-boxes. We recommend the 
Robinson Unit with its 25 or 50 pairs of birds 
because in flocks of that size you have some- 
thing arranged orderly and precisely, which 
you can keep track of in a positive, definite 
manner, but they do equally as well in one 
flock, regardless of number, provided they are 
all Homers. 

SORTING SQUABS. 

Squabs are killed when they are four weeks 
old because they are full size then. They 
have more meat on their bones at four weeks 
than at eight weeks, because at five weeks 
old they begin to feed themselves, and lack- 
ing the forced feeding given by the 
parent birds, they become thinner. Their 
muscles are also . hardening by use. At four 
weeks all the feathers are prettily out. If 
at four weeks you are undecided whether or 
not to kill, be guided one or two days either 
way by the fullness of the feathering. Some- 
times a squab can be killed when a day or 
two over three weeks old. The more you 
shorten the time, the less the product costs 
you. 

In sorting, do not forget to keep the plump- 
est SQUabs in one lot and those not so plump 



69 



in .inother lot. Do not tie up a plump with 
a thin squab so that the buyer will have a 
chance to say: "This is a mixed lot, I can- 
not pay you the No. 1 price." By keeping 
all the birds of one kind together you pre- 
vent the buyer from making comparisons. 
Shippers of farm produce of all kinds know 
how this is. They ship to one dealer their 
firsts and to another dealer their seconds and 
very frequently the latter dealer pays the No. 
1 price because the goods are equal to the 
goods of others for which he 4pays the No. 1 
price. 

REMODELED HOG-PENS. 
We print one picture here to show how one 
of our customers started at very small ex- 
pense. He took the hog-pen side of his barn 
and fl.Ked it over as you see. The staging on 
which the birds sun themselves was made out 




of boards cheaply. The nest-boxes and roosts 
inside take up only a small part of the 
structure. Anybody who has a barn or an 
outbuilding of any kind can fix up the sunny 
side of it as shown here and put into breed- 
ing stock the money which others use for a 
special building. 

NEAR THE SEA. 
A few beginners who live on the seacoast 
write and tell us that they are going to move 
inland to raise squabs. We have advised 
them not to do it. The Homer pigeon is de- 
rived from the old rock pigeon, which bred 
in the cliffs, and the seacoast was its natural 
home. They thrive in salt air. If the tide 
or a creek runs from the sea into your prop- 
erty, build your flying pen over the water 
and let the birds enjoy it. 



If you live inland and happen to have a 
brook or river running through your prop- 
erty, build your flying pen over it and the 
birds by bathing and drinking in running 
water will save you the trouble of supplying 
bath pans. 

ON BUYING. 

Many beginners ask us to advise them on 
starting, whether to buy mated or young 
birds, etc., and how many. We recommend 
that beginners start with our best mated 
adult birds, as many pairs as you can afford. 
It is just as easy to care for a good-sized 
flock as a little one, and the earnings are 
larger. Remember, your time is the big fac- 
tor. You will have to pay attention just as 
often to half a dozen pairs as you will to 
25, 50 or 100 pairs. If you wish immediate 
returns, with weekly sales of squabs to pay 
for the grain, and a profit besides at the 
start which will keep rolling up, then buy 
our mated adult birds, and the extra quality 
If you believe that the best is the cheapest, 
as it undoubtedly is in the case of squabs, 
for there is at least a dollar's difference per 
dozen in the market price of the squabs they 
raise. 

If you have, for instance, $50 to invest, put 
$40 into your birds and $10 into your build- 
ing, rathe:- than $10 or $12 into your birds 
and the balance into the building. Almost 
any place will do for a shelter if it is water- 
proof. Y'our flock will earn a better building. 
USE OP ICE. 

Ice is not absolutely needed in the summer 
by the squab breeder. Every house has a 
cool room or a cool cellar in which the 
squabs can be hung from the studding as de- 
scribed in the Manual. In shipping to a 
distant market on hot days, ice will be 
needed. 

The squab breeder will find it better to 
manage in this way: When summer time, 
with its comparatively low prices conies, let 
your flock multiply, keeping the squabs and 
growing them up for breeders. You will more 
than make up the delay when the cool days 
come. 

MARKET CONDITIONS. 

The New York market for squabs is un- 
doubtedly one of the best in the country and 
our customers who live within shipping dis- 
tance of that city have opportunity to make 
a mint of money. A squab-breeder in 
Alauricetown, N. J., writes us: "Your Manual 
received and I am pleased with it. We are 
now getting in New York for dressed squabs 
$4.25 to $4.50 per dozen. Did not get below 
S2.50 last summer. We have express or 
freight to pay and five per cent, commission 



TO 



lor selling. Our houses are not as complete 
as yours. We do not have any floor in our 
houses except the earth. Have about 300 pair 
pigeons and last year shipped 2700 squabs. 
We feed three times a day in the flying pen 
and on the ground, and in wet weather this 
is quite a disadvantage. Your self-feeder 
strikes me as being very desirable. We keep 
fifty pair pigeons in each house." 

At the same time the above correspondent 
was getting $4.25 to $4.50 a dozen for his 
squabs, we were getting for ours in Boston 
$3 a dozen. There is an immense and very 
rich liotel trade in New York, not to speak 
of the fine butcher shops. Such hotels as 
the Waldorf-Astoria, Imperial, Fifth Avenue, 
Hoffman House, Astor House, etc., and res- 
taurants like Sherry's and Delmonico's will 
pay as high as .|8 and $10 a dozen for choice, 
plump squabs, and if the squab-breeder will 
personally interview the proprietors of these 
places, when he has stock ready, he will 
make sales at ton-notch prices direct, avoiding 
the middleman. Anybody owning a farm on 
Long Island, in southern New York, northern 
New Jersey or Connecticut, can make a tor- 
tune by shipping squabs to New York. 

Our advertising has brought us many letters 
from game supply houses, hotels and clubs in 
New York who wish to buy our killed squabs, 
and offering to pay from $i a dozen up. We 
do not care to supply them, having our 
hands full in raising live breeders and in 
supplying Boston game dealers under con- 
tract, but our customers are welcome to this 
trade. To every customer of ours who buys 
breeding stock and who wishes to supply the 
New York market, we will give letters of in- 
troduction to desirable squab buyers in that 
city. We intend to work up opportunities 
for our customers in every large city. The 
right to use our trade-mark and brand, "Ply- 
mouth Rock," is given by us to every cus- 
tomer who buys breeding stock of us, and 
can be used by no other breeder. 

A correspondent in New York state sends us 
a clipping from the New York Tribune's 
market columns and asks us to interpret it. 
We quote from the price-list as follows: 

"Pigeons, 20c.; squabs, prime, large, white, 
per doz., $3.50 and $3.75; ditto, mixed, $2.75 
and .$3; ditto, dark. $1.75 and .$2." 

The quotation, "Pigeons, 20 cents," means 
20 cents a pair for common old killed pigeons. 
These tough old birds are occasionally found 
in the markets and are worth only 10 or 15 
cents apiece. They are neither squabs nor 
the old Homer pigeons, but are common 
pigeons such as fly in the streets. A small 
hoy might get a pair of these street pigeons 



and kill them and give them to a butcher 
wlio would pay him 15 or 20 cents a pair. 
These cheap pigeons come into the eastern 
markets largely from the West in barrels and 
are sold to Boston commission men for five 
cents apiece, or 50 cents a dozen. They are 
retailed at from $1 to $1.20 a dozen. They 
have been killed with guns and have 
shot in their bodies. If you ask for pigeon 
pie at one of the cheap Boston restaurants, 
you will get a shot or two against your 
teeth with mouthfuls. After every trap-shoot- 
ing contest some skulker goes over the field 
and gathers up all the killed and maimed 
birds ho can find, and sells them for two and 
three cents apiece, or for anything he can 
get, and these find their way into the mar- 
kets. The cruel practice of pigeon shooting 
by miscalled "sportsmen" on Long Island is 
quite common, and the presence of these 
birds in the New York butcher shops accounts 
for the above quotation in the Tribune. It 
is unnecessary to add that such birds do not 
compete with squabs. They can be made 
palatable only by stewing for hours in a pie, 
which takes out a little of their toughness. 

As to squabs, the quotation, "Prime, large, 
white, per dozen S3. 50 and $3.75," is for the 
kind of squabs that are raised from our 
Homers, namely. No. 1 grade. 

By the quotation, "Mixed. $2.75 and $3.00," 
is meant that these amounts are paid for lots 
of birds composed of No. 1 and No. 2 grades, 
mixed. If you sort up your birds carefully 
you will be able to get the No. 1 prices for 
all. Some people do not know how to sort 
them, and they have to be satisfied with the 
price of a mixed lot. 

By the quotation, "Dark, $1.75 and $2.00," 
is meant the dark-fleshed squabs, as you have 
learned by reading our Manual. Squabs 
whose flesh is dark do not sell for as much 
as the white-fleshed squabs. 

Pigeons are of all colors, i. e., as you see 
their feathers, and the squabs likewise, but 
when you pluck the feathers off the flesh is 
cither a pure white with a tinge of yellow or 
dark like a negro's skin. 

Quotations for squabs as found in the 
market reports in the newspapers are always 
lower than they really are. The writers of 
the market columns in the daily papers see 
only the commission men and cater only to 
them; they smoke the commission men's 
cigars and believe what the commission men 
tell them. They do not see the producer at 
all. The object of the commission men is to 
get the squabs as cheap as they can. When 
you are breeding squabs make up your mind 
to get from 25 cents to $1 or more per dozen 



71 



than you see quoted in the market reports. 
At the same time the report quoted above wari 
printed in the New York Tribune the breeder 
In Mauricetown, N. J., previously quoted, 
was getting from $4.25 to $4.50 a dozen for 
his squabs. (This was the last week in Jan- 
uary, 1902). You see, it does not pay to trust 
wholly to the market reports in the news- 
papers. The motive of the city men is to 
get their goods as cheap as they can. It is 
your motive to. get as much as you can, and 
dcn't be fooled by second-hand information. 
Go direct to headquarters yourself in person 
and learn the truth. If the middleman tries 
to hold down the price to you, go to a con- 
sumer and make your bargain with him at 
top prices. 

A breeder in New Jersey who has become 
interested in our methods writes that there 
are saveral squab breeders in his town, all 
of whom give their regular time to other 
businesses. He continues: "I am now (Feb- 
ruary, 190i). getting 32 cents each as they 
run, no sorting, for what few squabs I am 
now raising, and they are sold to a man who 
calls every Tuesday for them. When I have 
enough, I ship direct to New York by ex- 
press. They sort them in New York." 

This is doing extremely well for unsorted 
squabs. It is only another bit of evidence 
which proves the money-making condition of 
the New York market. (The above corre- 
spondent's breeders are not first-class, he ad- 
mits, saying he has been breeding for seven 
years and his flock has run down, and his 
object in writing to us is to buy a new 
flock.) 

The Kansas City market does not yet know 
■n hat a fat squab is. The only things ob- 
tainable there are the squabs of common 
pigeons, which are quoted low, as they are 
all over the country. A correspondent in 
Atchison writes: "I wrote to the Kansas 
City dealer again, telling him I thought his 
prices were pretty low for Homer squabs. 
He replied that they had so few Homers 
offered that they did not quote them, and 
they would be worth from |2 to $2.50 per 
dozen. He quoted common pigeon squabs at 
$1.25 to $1.75 per dozen, as I wrote you be- 
fore. That is better, and I want to try 
raising them as soon as I can get into a 
place where I can handle them." 

Fact is, the squabs that bring from $3 to 
$5 a dozen east of the Mississippi will bring 
that (and more) as soon as the wealthy trade 
of Kansas City get a taste of them. 
AS TO THE NESTS. 

The nests seem to puzzle some beginners. 
Get these terms accurately in your mind: 



First, the nest-box, which is made of wood: 
second, the nappy, which is made of yellow 
glazed earthenware in two sizes, the uses of 
which are fully explained; third, the nest, 
which is built by the bird in the nappy. 
Each pair of pigeons must have two nest- 
boxes. In one nest-box you put one nappy, in 
the other nest-box another nappy. 
WATER SUPPLY. 
During the winter (and at all seasons, if 
you wish), you can save steps for yourself by 
locating the bath*pan in the squab house. 
We recommend the suggestion of Mr. Barry, a 
squab breeder with whom we are acquainted. 
It is en the wet sink principle. The sink 
is made of wood or galvanized iron 2V4 feet 
square with a two-inch hole in the centre 
and a two-inch pipe six inches long leading 
from the hole through the floor of the squab 
house, tor drainage. The bath pan is set in 
the sink, which rests on the floor. The fol- 
lowing will make the idea clearer: 



LT 



A is the bath pan, B the sink and C the 
drainage pipe. When the birds bathe in the 
pan, the water which they splash is caught 
by the sloping bottom of the sink and runs 
out through the pipe. The blocks under the 
bath pan are three or four in number and 
do not extend all around the sink, but merely 
steady it to prevent sliding and tipping. 
Pigeons drink after they have taken food and 
by this arrangement they have clean water 
for drinking as well as bathing. All the 
splashed water' is taken out of the way and 
the floor of the squab house remains dry. 
The sink is not nailed to the floor and can 
be taken out easily for cleaning or white- 
washing. 

If you can afford it, pipe your squab house 
for running water and set the above wet sink 
and bath pan under an open faucet, and let 
the water run slowly continuously, or you 
may turn it on when you choose from a vaUv 
in your house or office. This is an ideal 
labor-saving arrangement for a big plant with 
25 to 50 bath pans. Don't let the overflow 
collect under the squab house. It must be 
drained off the premises. 

INCREASE IN FLOCK. 

The table on page 12, showing the possi- 
bilities of pigeon breeding, was compiled by 
Dr. W. R. Amesbury. 

Many beginners wish to know if it will be 



72 



all right for them to buy a flock and keep it 
in one house for six months or a year, pay- 
ing no attention to the mating of the young 
birds, but leaving that to themselves, so as 
to get without much trouble a large flock 
before the killing of the squabs for market 
begins. Certainly, you may do this, providing 
extra nest-boxes from time to time until 
your squab house has been filled with nests; 
then you will have to provide overflow quar- 
ters. We are asked if the flock will not 
become weakened by inbreeding, that is, a 
brother bird mating up to a sister, by chance. 
According to the law of chances, such mat- 
ings would take place not very often. Pig- 
eons in a wild state, on the face of a cliff, 
or in an abandoned building, would mate by 
natural selection. The stronger bird gets the 
object of its affection, the weaker one is 
killed off or gets a weaker mate, whose young 
are shorter-lived, so the inevitable result is 
more strength and larger size. Nature works 
slowly, if surely. A lot of pigeons in one 
pen mating as they please when old enough 
is the natural way. and if you follow this, 
you cannot go very far wrong. We advocate 
matings by the breeder because it hurries 
Nature along the path which makes most 
money for the breeder. We all know how 
Darwin studied natural and forced selection 
with pigeons. He took one pigeon with a 
certain peculiarity, say a full breast, and 
mated it to another pigeon with a full breast. 
The squabs from these birds, when grown, 
had breasts fuller than their parents. Then 
these in turn were mated to full-breasted 
pigeons from other parents, and the grand- 
children had even larger breasts. Darwin's 
experiments covered a period of over twenty 
years and In this time he developed little 
faults and peculiarities to an amazing degree. 
Every intelligent, careful pigeon breeder is 
striving by his forced matings to push along 
the path of progress the peculiarity in pig- 
eons which is his specialty. The breeder 
who selects most carefully and keeps at it 
the longest wins over the others. By select- 
ing from our best and most prolific breeders 
the biggest and fattest squabs. keeping 
them for breeders and mating so as to get 
something larger and plumper, we are get- 
ting all the time bigger squabs. We expect 
eventually to raise squabs which when four 
■weeks old will be as big as market-sized 
chickens. We are amused sometimes by the 
thought that we have made some progress in 
this direction, for a judge of poultry at the 
big Boston show in IMl was fooled by our 
squabs and gave them first prize in the 
chicken broiler class! Every breeder cf 



squabs has it in his power to increase the 
efficiency of his flock by studying his mat- 
ings. At the end of a year, his squabs 
sliould be larger than when he started, at the 
end of two years still larger, and so on. 
There is commercial satisfaction in breeding 
for size and plumpness because it pays at 
once, and at the same time the breeder has 
the satisfaction of increasing the stamina and 
variety of pigeons. 

To be master of the matings, the breeder 
should band his squabs as described in the 
Manual. As soon as they are weaned (that is, 
as soon as the breeder sees them flying to 
the feed pnd eating it) they should be taken 
and put into a rearing squab-house. When 
about six months old, the breeder should be- 
gin mating them by selection, using the mat- 
ing coop, then when they are mated turn the 
pair into a working pen with other adult 
birds. By looking at the number on the 
band of each bird, thon on your record card, 
you know how to avoid mating up brother and 
sister 

When the young birds are just over four 
weeks old, or between four and six weeks, 
they are able to fiy a little, and if they do 
not hop out of the nest (or are not pushed 
(•ut by the parents) you may push them out 
yourself. They are now able to feed them- 
selves and you should provide an auxiliary 
feeding trough in the squab house for them. 
In a week or so longer, they will be bright 
enough to go to the self-feeder in the flying- 
pen. If these young birds are left in the 
squab house, they will bother the old birds 
by begging for food, and this infantile nag- 
ging will hinder the regular breeders in their 
next hatch, so the very best thing to do is 
to put the young birds by themselves in a 
rearing house, where they cannot bother any- 
body. 

Of course there is likely to be a little 
inbreeding when you leave the birds to choose 
for themselves, but not much. If the breeder 
has not the time to make forced matings, 
then he may not care to make them.' Re- 
member in mating that like begets like. The 
parent bird that feeds its young the most, 
and mo.st often, will raise the biggest squab. 
Sometimes a parent bird will have fine nurs- 
ing abilities and will stuff its offspring with 
food. These good-feeding qualities are trans- 
mitted from one generation to another and 
■ire as much under the control of the breeder 
as size and flesh-color. Your biggest squabi 
will be found to have an extra-attentiv^ 
father or mother, or both. A pigeon 
with a dark skin if mated to a wh't" 
skinned bird will produce a mulatto-like 



73 



squab. It is the large, fat, white-fleslied 
squab which you are after. Disregard the 
color of the feathers when mating. It when 
plucking your squabs you come across a 
"nigger," that Is, a squab with a dark skin, 
find out what pair of breeders it came from, 
and whether the cock or the hen Is at fault, 
and get rid of the faulty one. 

It is important to start with adult birds 
that are not related, then you will not begin 
inbreeding. That is why we make a special 
effort with our adult birds to have them un- 
related, and with our system of identifica- 
tion and record keeping we can do it with 
precision. 

A breeder in Moorestown, N. J., writes us: 
"T have read j'our circular ('How to Make 
Money with Squabs') and find according to 
my experience (of seven years) that you do 
not make as many departures from the truth 
as most books I have received on the sub- 
ject, and as I don't claim to 'know it all' il 
have a desire to read your Manual. I am 
now getting rid of a lot of my stock in order 
to make some alterations to my buildings and 
will need some new blood in my lofts." 

There is always something to learn in 
pigeon breeding and like our correspondent, 
we do not claim to "know it all," either. 
It is an open field, and the best thought and 
industry take the lead. We do not intend to 
make any departures from the truth and most 
certainly have not, in the light of our own 
experience. We take our correspondent to 
mean that he has not discovered any inaccu- 
racies worth speaking about. Everything is 
as plain and precise as we can make it, and 
carefully stated. 

CLEANING TROWEL. 

The nappies are cleansed in hot water. To 
clean the nest-boxes, the very best imple- 




ment is a square-pointed trowel, as shown in 
the illustration. These trowels are seldom 
found in the country and not in every city 
hardware store, but one is worth having, even 
it you have to send away for it. The kind 
we use is of thick steel, bevelled front and 
sides, which cannot be bent, and strong han- 
dle. The edges may be ground sharp. The 
caked droppings can be dug oft from the nest 
boxes with this handy tool quickly and easily. 
With one sweep of the side edge you can 
rough out a nappy and put off washing time 



a fortnight. 

HOW TO CATCH THE BIRDS. 

If for mating purposes, or for any other 
reason, you wish to catch a pigeon, walk into 
the squab house or flying pen at any time of 
the day with a net on the end of a six-foot 
pole — like a butterfly catcher. You can catch 
the bird you want in halt a minute. A Homer 
does not struggle fiercely to elude capture. 
It acts with some intelligence as if realizing 
that it may injure its wings. 

When dusk comes you can handle pigeons 
as easily and almost as fast as you can apples. 
You need not wait until it is pitch dark. At 
5.30 P. M. in the short winter days, and 7.30 
P. M. in summer, we can go into the squab 
houses and crowd the birds into one end, 
then reach fast for the ones we want, their 
identity being clearly distinguished. They 
are as quiet as kittens in the semi-darkness, 
making little or no fluttering, and can be 
transferred to a basket or crate as fast as 
you can pick them up with the right hand, 
holding the basket with the left. 
INBREEDING. 

.Some letters from customers make plain to 
us that a clear knowledge of what inbreeding 
means is not possessed by everybody. Sev- 
eral have written to this effect: "It I buy two 
or three dozen pairs from you to start, how- 
can I Increase the size of my flock without 
inbreeding." Now, inbreeding, or breeding 
in, is the opposite of breeding out (or line 
breeding). When (1) a brother is mated to 
sister, or (2) a father to a daughter, or (3) 
a mother to a son, or (4) a grandson to his 
grandmother, etc., that is inbreeding. We 
know it is forbidden by law for human beings 
to mate in that manner, because (a) God in 
the Scriptures has forbidden it, and (b) be- 
cause the State does not wish to have to care 
for the puny, weak-minded offspring that 
would result from such unions. We all know 
that the marriages ot cousins often result in 
demented, diseased children. Now suppose 
you buy two dozen pairs of pigeons of us, 
and number them Pairs 1 to 24. If you 
mate the offspring of Pair 2 (or any other 
pair) to the offspring of Pair 1 (or any other 
pair) that is outbreeding. What you do not 
do. and what you try to prevent, is the mat- 
ing of the offspring of Pair No. 1 (or any 
other pair) to each other. So, you see, if 
you have a dozen or two pairs, you need 
never inbreed, for there is an infinite variety 
of matings possible. Breeders of animals 
sometimes inbreed purposely in order to get 
better color of fur or plumage, or finer 
bones, etc., but what is gained in these re- 
spects is lost in size and stamina. Fowls 



74 



hatched from studied inbreedings often are 
so weak that their progress across the barn- 
yard is like the tottering, falling progress of 
a drunkard. There are no brothers and sis- 
ters in the flocks we sell. If you buy one 
dozen or twenty dozen pairs of breeders of 
us, the pairs will be unrelated, and you need 
never inbreed. 

NAPPIES. 
This illustration shows the two nappies, 
the small size and the large size, the uses 
of which we have fully explained, '^'^ey are 
made of yellow glazed earthenware. On 
Page 29 we say: "Do not use the earthenware 
nests or wooden boxes which you may find 
advertised," meaning by "earthenware 




nests" the extremely deep heavy, brown, 
unglazed clay nests shaped something like 
the bottom part of an egg cup (only, of 
course, larger). These are not only expen- 
sive, but impractical, a relic of ancient, 
cumbrous and ineffective methods. 
FOOD MATERIALS. 

If any of the food materials which we tell 
about in the Manual puzzles you, ask your 
grain dealer tor samples and prices. Some 
write to us saying they have never heard of 
Kaffir corn, another wishes to know where 
he can get red w-heat. All the food supplies 
are obtainable anywhere in the United States, 
Canada or foreign countries. If your grain 
dealer has not on hand a certain kind, the 
reason i.s Lhat ho has few calls for it, but 
he can get it for you as easily as he gets 
oats or chicken food. Many grain dealers 
keep only horse feed and don't know any- 
thing about other animal foods. If the dealer 
nearest you has no Kaffir corn, ask him if he 
has a pigeon mixture. You will probably 
find his pigeon mixture contains KafBr corn. 
and this mixture is what you should buy. 
Put it into your self-feeder just as it is. Mix 
up the quantity for the self-feeder of wheat 
and corn (bearing in mind what we have 
said about varying the amount of corn so as 
to keep down the heat in the blood). Vary 
the daintiep, feeding by hand as much or as 
little as you choose. The birds will search 
out the dainties with a rush and eat them 
first. Throw them on the yard of the flying 
pen or the floor of the squab-house. 

On Page 33. "How to Feed." the diet given 
is for local (New England) use. We did not 



think the Manual would find its way over 
such a wide area of country as it has. We 
wish to emphasize the fact, that pigeons are 
like human beings. To be kept in perfect 
health. Ihey must be given a variety of foods. 
We did not intend to give "Feed no whole 
corn," as a hard and fast rule. In the spring 
months, it is impossible to get cracked corn 
that is sweet and good. It heats, sours, and 
is unfit for feed. Another thing, in some 
localities it is not convenient to procure the 
cracked corn. Then we say feed the corn 
whole. But remember to keep your birds i.i 
health, you must feed a variety of other 
grains. Locality often determines the grain. 
For instance, we have the corn belt, the 
wheat belt, also local centres, where buck- 
wheat is raised, which also is an excellent 
pigeon feed, second only to wheat. Other lo- 
calities produce barley, another grain that is 
a good feed for pigeons, so considered by the 
English. Millet is another wholesome grain. 
Keep this one great fact before you at all 
times, to feed a variety of grains; by doing 
this you will avoid diseases of all kinds, and 
your birds will be in the pink of condition 
at all seasons of the year. In feeding whole 
corn, do not mix it with your finer grains. 
In feeding corn to our birds we scatter it oii 
the floor or ground. The feed boxes are all 
the time supplied with the finer grains. After 
the birds eat all they wish of the whole corn, 
they adjourn to the feed boxes for their des- 
sert. Allow them to choose their own diet, 
and their health, happiness, and your pros- 
perity will be with you. Some of our readers 
will say, "The Doctor says nothing about 
oats." As a muscle-making food, and to 
build frame, there is nothing like oats, but 
in using oats we prefer them hulled. In that 
way we feed them all the time, especially 
when we are raising young for breeders. But 
for market squabs, we eliminate it from the 
bill of fare, as oats are not a fat producer. 




SHIPPING CRATES. 
This photograph shows our smallest-sized 



75 



shipping crate, capable of accommodating 
from four to sixteen birds. The tag is shown 
in position on top of the crate, protected by 
three short pieces of wood. Twelve birds in 
this light and strong crate weigh about 
fifteen pounds. When shipping a large num- 
ber of birds, we use two or three or more 
orates, each crate being as large as can be 
handled by one expressman. The express 
charges are the same, no matter whether one 
big crate or two or three small ones are used, 
provided the total weight is the same. 
Usually they are less when several small 
crates are used, because the lumber in them 
is lighter than in one big crate, and there is 
a decided advantage in ease of handling. 
THE SELF-FEEDER. 

Everybody has asked for more details about 
the self-feeder, and we give here three views 
with dimensions. 

The first is a plan (looking down from 
the top.) 

:, _ _ 4' G" X 



top, or cover, is covered with tarred paper 
and is un hinges. The post should be of a 
height to permit of your filling the hopper 

'<--- //"- -^ 

TTTi. V. I. ^ '. ■■ 




The second is the elevation, or side view. 

The third is a cross section. The birds 
usually hop onto the drop shelf, then onto 
the base board (as shown). As fast as they 
eat, the grain in the hopper drops down. 
Look again at the elevation and you will see 
that the sides are cut away, leaving sup- 
Iiorts at the middle and ends. 



u 



1^ 3 , 

Note this fact particularly, that the wedge- 
shaped ends of the hopper are removable 
(sliding up) so that when you choose you may 
clean out the whole interior of the hopper 
easily with a broom. 

The self-feeder is built almost wholly of 
one-inch pine, with the exception of the 
lighter stuff, which may be of half-inch. The 




<--- IS ----^ 

from a. pail or scoop without straining your 
arms. 

SEAMLESS BAND. 
A few beginners are puzzled by the seam- 
less band and its use, so we have had this 
sketch prepared to make the idea plain. The 
band with date of hatch stamped on it is 
shown in the low-er right-hand corner and the 
arrow points to a band on the right leg of a 
pigeon, showing how it looks when in place. 
The band is made of aluminum and as the 



BANO 




squab's leg grows it fills the ring, and the 
band cannot be taken off without sawing or 
filing, nor can another band be put on. On 
the band, in addition to the year of hatch, 
the breeder may stamp a designating num- 
ber, or anything he chooses. 

SQUAB HOUSE DETAILS. 
On Page 16 we print a plan and side view 
of sauab house and flving pen. In order to 
give a clearer idea of the timbers, we print a 



76 



more detailed side view here. 

A B C is one timber, E C H another and 
E B a third. B D is made of wire, to pre- 
vent the birds from flying from the squab 
house to the top of the passageway. K 
shows the lattice work underneath the nest 
boxes through which the pigeons thrust their 
bills and heads to feed from the trough P. 
You fill the trough with grain by hand from 
the passageway. This is useful in stormy or 
bitter cold weather when it is desirable not to 
let the birds out into the flying pen, where 
the self-feeder is located. The line C D is 
shown full to represent the bracing posts, 
but you should remember to leave this top 
part of the squab house mostly open, for bet- 
ter ventilation. 

In building our new squab houses, we have 
deviated a trifle from the dimensions given on 




Page 16. The perpendicular distance from E 
to the floor of the squab house we are making 
eleven feet. From A to C, thirteen feet. 
From C to floor of squab house, nine feet. 
From H to floor of squab house six feet. 
From A to H (total depth of squab house) 16 
feet. Width of unit squab house (large 
enough to house 50 to 75 pairs of birds), 
twelve feet. Length of flying pen from top 
of ridge pole of squab house to south ex- 
tremity, thirty feet. Length of flying pen 
from end of squab house to south extremity, 
twenty feet. Height of flying pen from ground, 
uine to twelve feet. 

TO SUM ur. 

There are hut four points es.sential to suc- 
cess in pigeon raising: First, variety and 
plenty of food. Second, fresh, clean water. 
Third, clean houses. Fourth, GOOD STOCK, 
as obtained from the PLYMOUTH ROCK 
SQUAB CO. 



QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 

Ques. How do you yourself pack squabs 
for market, in baskets or boxes? Ans. We 
pack in boxes with hinged cover because the 
distance from Pembroke to the Boston market 
is short. For a day's journey, use nailed 
cover boxes. 

Ques. Do you pack in one layer, or more? 
Ans. We pack them in layer upon layer, 
close, in an orderly manner. Don't throw 
theni in every way. 

Ques. Is there any discoloration of the 
meat upon contact, after the squab is cooled? 
Ans. No; in hot weather the squabs should 
not be killed until the night before ship- 
ping, and when cooling from the studding 
should be hung in a draft. There will be .no 
discoloration when shipping squabs cooled 
properly in this manner. 

Ques. Is it safe to hang killed squabs 
from studding in the summer time to cool? 
Ans. Use a cellar, or the coolest room on 
the premises. 

Ques. Of each pair of squabs hatched, is 
one invariably a male and the other a female? 
Ans. Not invariably, but as a rule. 

Ques. When raised all in one pen, are 
not the brother and sister likely to pair, be- 
ing best acquainted by association in the 
nest? Ans. No, it is not Nature's way. 
Each will look for a new acquaintance. 

Ques. If pairs only of birds when old 
enough to take to the wing were put in an 
apartment until there were a large number 
of such pairs, would it insure freedom from 
unmated and unproductive birds and the use- 
less cost of feeding such birds? If so this 
would be easier than mating them in coops 
or hutches. To the inexperienced it would 
be safer than to trust to one's ability to de- 
termine the sex of birds by examination. 
Ans. It is very hard to tell the sex of young 
birds by manipulation because the female, 
having produced no eggs, has not widened in 
position of posterior bones. As we state in 
the Manual, one way to tell the sex of 
pigeons is by observation of their behavior, 
and this is the way which must be used in 
the case of young birds. You cannot tell 
either male or female organs in the living 
birds. We have killed and dissected them 
and found them. The breeder must train his 
faculties of observation keenly and then hi 
can tell the birds apart and seldom make an 
error. (But we have seen breeders who 
thought they were good judges fooled.) It 
takes a keen, sharp eye. 

Ques. Would it not be well to have ths 
nest-boxes larger, so the birds can have a 
place to alight? Ans. No; the bird shou' 1 



L.ofC. 



77 



net have any space to loaf on, but should 
be on top of the nest as soon as it strikes 
into the nest-box. The nest should be its 
only place to sit. 

Ques. Please give details as to shingling 
squab house. Ans. To get a warm hou.se, 
one of our correspondents has suggested the 
use of rosin-sized building paper under the 
shingles. We approve this suggestion. Use 
common and not wire shingle nails, which 
rust out quickly. As to the roosts, this cor- 
respondent makes the following suggestion: 
Use inch boards five and si.\ inches wide, cut 
eight inches long. Nail the side of the six- 
inch piece onto the side of the five-inch piece 
like the letter V inverted and toenail the 
end to the wall where wanted. 

Ques. In tacking on the two-inch strips to 
the front of each pair of nests, do you mean 
both the horizontal and perpendicular divi- 
sions? Ans. No, only the perpendicular. 

Ques. Why not use a wire across the front 
to keep nappies from falling out? Ans. Not 
necessary; w'ould hinder cleaning. A nappy 
is seldom pushed out. 

Ques. How many squabs are packed in a 
basket or box when shipping to market? 
Ans. As many as will make a package eas- 
ily handled by one expressman. A box 2 ft. 
X 2 ft. X IS inches is big enough. 

Ques. Will a male mate with two females 
at the same time? Ans. No. There may 
be exceptions, but we have not observed any. 

Ques. On Page 23 you say: "When squabs 
are two weeks old . . . the nest with oc- 
cupants are transferred," etc., and a few 
lines further you say: "You get rid of the 
dirty nest," etc. Do you intend to say that 
the old nest is entirely thrown away, or only 
the dung in nappy outside of nest? Ans. 
Throw the old nest away and in the new, 
clean nappy place a handful of nesting ma- 
terial (straw and grass). Then place the 
pair of live squabs on top of this new nest. 

Ques. Instead of shingling the squab house, 
would it not do to make the sides and eiids 
of good flooring, put on right, that would be 
air-tight? Ans. Yes; we prefer shingles 
because neater. 

Ques. I believe I will build a wire netting 
fence eight feet high and leave the top of the 
flying pen open. Ans. You must keep the 
birds wired in completely, otherwise they will 
fly back to us. Birds which you hatch and 
raise you may allow to fly loose. Not know- 
ing of any home but yours, they will not 
leave you. 

Ques. In the case of a long squab house 
vith different flocks, would not one large fly- 
i:'.g pen answer? Ans. Yes, but the birds 



would not be under your control so well. 
You can keep watch of them better. 

Ques. When you pluck, do you draw the 
entrails out of the bird? Ans. No. 

Ques. Please describe killing the squab 
more fully. Ans. We can, but it will not 
make it clearer. Wait until your first lot of 
squabs is ready to be tweaked, then we war- 
rant you will teach yourself by actual prac- 
tice in five minutes. If you avoid the wrong 
way of holding your hands, as illustrated, 
there is only one other way of holding, and 
that is the right way, as told. 

Ques. Are the fiying (carrier) Homers the 
same breed of stock as your squab raisers? 
Ans. Yes; a carrier is a Homer that has 
been trained. 

Ques. Do the nest-boxes face the door? 
Ans. No; they face the south wall of the 
squab house. 

Quos. Is it necessary to completely cover 
the yard of the flying pen with grit? Ans. 
No; one correspondent writes on this point: 
"For grit we give oyster shells and sometimes 
pound up glass for them." 

Ques. Is Kaflir corn considered corn; and if 
so, should it be mixed half and half with 
cracked corn; the two forming the mixture 
considered the one-part corn, to two of wheat; 
for summer feed, as given in Manual, page 
33? Ans. No; we call Kaffir corn a 

"dainty." By "mixture," we mean wheat 
and cracked corn. That is the staple, the 
others are dainties. 

Ques. Are the mating coops mere bird 
cages, or as large as a flying pen? Ans. 
They are small, but not so small as the ordi- 
nary canary cage. A good size is 4 ft. x 
2 ft. x 2 ft., with removable wire partition 
in the middle, giving each bird a space 2 ft. 
X 2 ft. X 2 ft. 

Ques. I would like to buy half a dozen 
pairs of Homers. Provided I kept them in 
the house and flying pen until May 1, do you 
think they would leave if left out in the 
open after that date? Ans. Yes; you must 
keep them wired in all the time, or back 
they will come to us. 

Ques. On page 51, a sentence at the top ot 
the page says. "In the case of young birds, 
the first mating does not amount to much, 
the eggs being undersized and the squabs 
lacking in vitality." Now is it best to let 
the birds hatch the first eggs, or would it 
not be best to destroy the first eggs, and let 
the birds mate again, or is it best to let them 
hatch and learn to feed their young? Ans. 
It is best to let them hatch and learn to 
feed their young. 

Ques. Does each pair of birds have two 



nest-boxes? Ans, Yes. upper portion of the pair of boxes is hinged 

Ques. In changing the nappies from large to the strip covering the lower half. Is this 

to small, is the smaller nappy placed in the correct? (2) It seems to me that in this case 

empty nest-box, or is it placed in the same the nest-boxes could not be conveniently 

nest-box? Ans. In the same nest-box. cleaned from the rear. Ans. (1) Yes. (2) 

Ques. (1) Judging from the illustration on The nest-boxes are not cleaned from the rear 

Page 24 of your Manual, I should say that (or passageway) but from the front (interior 

the backs of the nest-boxes are made of five- of squab house). 

inch strips, and that the strip covering the 



79 



iAR 27 1902 



iyu2 




.iiiiii " 



1 


i i 

1 } 


t 
IJ 


! 1 



iiitHit 




il 


i 
1 1 
■ ! 


■ 

1 


n 


!i 


1 1 


j 





